Outtaverse part 7: Made in America
by Madcap13
Summary: In this episode, it’s blonde on blonde action as Glory is set loose on the sexiest rampage of destruction the world has ever seen since that robot babe drove heavy machinery down the street in Terminator 3.
1. Food of the gods

Outtaverse part 7: Made in America.

Summary : In this episode, it's blonde on blonde action as Glory is set loose on the sexiest rampage of destruction the world has ever seen since that robot babe drove heavy machinery down the street in Terminator 3.

Disclaimer : Almost all this stuff belongs to other people besides me.

Feedback : Yes. I think that's a good idea. You should do that.

Recap : After the discovery that Ethan Rayne's band candy dramatically altered the personality of vampires, the scoobies started mass production of a new improved vamp candy designed specifically for them. Now about the only vampire in Sunnydale who's not eating it is Spike. In the last episode, the scoobies crossovered with Stargate and Charmed. They also kicked Tell out of town for killing Tara's Father. Also, there has a been a distinct lack of Glory so far. But that'll change here.

Warning: Rated R for disturbing stuff.. Like that scene where Faith talks about performance. Heh, that was inspired.

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Buffy shivered in the night cold as she made her way into the magic box. The room was full of warm air, a sanctuary from the outside world.

Giles turned as the doorbell rang and gave her a bright smile, "Hello chosen one. We're so glad you could join us."

"I'm glad too." Buffy said as she rubbed some warmth back into the hands, "It's cold outside."

Buffy looked back into the night and could've sworn she saw a shadow flutter across the street but when she looked again she saw nothing except the dark cold streets. She knew something was out there though and it put her on alert.

She could feel it but it wasn't due to her slayer increased senses. She could feel it on an entirely different level.

"Uh, guys. I think there's something wrong." Buffy told the Scoobies.

"Is it a demon?" Dawn asked as she snuggled up against Tell, "Because that would be cool. Demons are so cool."

"Vampires are cooler." Spike argued.

"But mayors are cooler still." said Xander and a few of the Scoobies nodded in agreement, particularly Faith who was hugging him around the shoulders along like they were old friends.

Buffy watched them in confusion but watched in even more confusion as Harmony took a brightly glowing cherry out of an old wooden box and ate it.

As she did there was a strange shifting sound, like the air pressure in the room had just changed.

Buffy looked around and noticed that the lighting in the room had changed dramatically. The walls were now darker.

"What the hell?" Buffy pondered.

"Do you want some?" Harmony offered a light-bulb cherry to Spike who declined.

"I gave that up years ago." Spike told her, "But you go ahead."

As Harmony bit down on the strange fruit, the room changed again. The darkness was now coming in from the walls, liquid and suffocating.

Buffy backed away from the encroaching darkness and stumbled back into Tell.

"What are you doing here?" Buffy asked him.

Tell ignored her at looked at the wall, "You know, for a second there, I could've sworn I saw something. Probably the wind."

"Do you want one?" Harmony asked Tell, hanging one of the glowing fruit over his head.

Tell shook his head, "Maybe later."

"What are those?" Buffy asked Harmony.

Harmony looked at her, almost confused at the question, "The yellow brick road."

Buffy sighed, "Dreaming. I am so dreaming."

"The question to ask yourself is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Angel asked her, "Myself, I'm kinda looking forward to it. Been a long time coming."

Harmony ate the glowing cherry and the darkness come in even more, it crept through the air to surround the table where everyone was standing. Buffy crammed herself into the group to stay away from it's cold embrace.

"Hmm." Harmony said as she rattled the wooden box around a little, "Only one left."

Buffy pushed through the people and stopped Harmony from eating the last cherry.

"No!" Buffy yelled as she cradled it in her hands, "You can't eat that."

Harmony frowned, "Why not?"

Buffy opened her hands to look at the glowing cherry, the only source of light in the room and it grew dimmer.

"We've got to keep this safe. It's precious. I've got to guard it with my life." Buffy told everyone then spotted Dawn walking off into the darkness, "Dawn! No. Don't walk out there!"

"Why?" Dawn asked as her skin shriveled up and flaked off her body like dry paint, "I'll have you know that I'm very adult for my age."

"Dawn!" Buffy sobbed, "Come back, please."

"Buffy, what's wrong?" Dawn's rapidly deteriorating corpse asked, "You don't look too well."

The cherry in Buffy's hand shorted out with a fizzle and the darkness swallowed the world whole.

Just as abruptly, the front section of the magic box was torn apart by the wind and Dawn got pulled up into the sky in a twister, screaming as she went.

Buffy stared in horror as her sister was swallowed by the darkness but quickly lost track of her as she disappeared into the distance.

"Dawn!"

Where she was staring into the darkest night sky, the stars exploded in a supernova and everything burnt like a vampire in sunlight.

Then she heard screaming.

"Buffy!" Joyce yelled then said a little calmer, "It's okay. It's okay. It was just a dream."

Buffy looked around her room and found herself in her bed.

"Buffy. Can you let go? you're hurting me." Joyce said with a patient but pained voice.

Slowly and with shaking hands, Buffy let her Mother go, "Sorry. Bad dream."

"You don't say." Joyce said with a weak smile, "Why did you call out for Dawn?"

"Huh?"

"When you were having that nightmare, you called out for Dawn. Was it a Slayer dream? Is something bad going to happen to Dawn?"

Buffy shook her head, "No. The dream, it was just freaky. Actually, it's uh, Giles I'm worried about. And Xander. I need to go."

Joyce nodded and went to leave but Buffy stopped her with, "Mom? Just out of curiosity, where is Dawn?"

"She's out with Tara. I think they were planning to visit Faith."

Buffy frowned, "I don't think I like Dawn going over to Faith's so much."

"I think it's good for Faith to have friends. It will help her readjust to normal life and it's not like your circle have really invited her back in, have they?"

Buffy frowned at her mother.

Joyce smiled warmly, "Besides. Dawn idolizes Faith. I don't have the energy to get in the road of that."

"I bet Faith is teaching her evil things, right now. How to hotwire a car, how to throw knives, shoplifting, how to get an abortion, fire starting, intimidation tactics."

"Dawn's been quite sullen since you sent Tell away. I'm not going to stop her seeing Faith."

"He killed Tara's father." Buffy told her mother for the tenth time.

"I know." Joyce said quickly, "But that doesn't mean she doesn't miss him. Just quietly, I think she had a crush on him."

"That's gross." Buffy grimaced.

"Like having a vampire for a boyfriend?" Joyce asked.

"No. It's nothing like it." Buffy argued, "Angel was so different."

Joyce nodded mockingly, "Yes. He wasn't quiet and darkly mysterious."

Buffy stared at her mother, "Mom. They're really nothing alike."

"If you say so."

"They're not. Angel's so much.. taller."

Joyce tittered, "You're not wrong there."

"Dawn was taller than Tell. Hell, even I was."

"No you weren't." Joyce told her.

"He wore platform shoes." Buffy informed her.

Joyce squinted at Buffy, "You wear platform shoes too."

Buffy kept eye contact and lied convincingly, "No I don't."

Joyce smiled at her daughter and asked "Are you sure you'll be okay without me for a whole week?"

Buffy smirked at her mother, "You're not getting off the hook that easily. You're going on this vacation and you're going to relax if I have to kill you to do it. The doctor said for you to rest and you haven't yet."

Her mother put on a defeated face, "Okay. I'm going, I'm going. I just hope I don't miss an apocalypse while I'm gone."

Buffy chuckled, "That's the great thing about apocali, no one miss them. They bring everyone together."

"If anything happens, call the number on the fridge." Joyce instructed Buffy.

Buffy rolled her eyes, "Nothing's gonna happen."

OXOXOX

"Faith is so cool." Dawn told Tara as they walked along the pink concrete path towards the Chase mansion, "Except for when she's being a jerk that is."

Tara nodded but gave Dawn a skeptical look.

"No really, she is. She's even teaching me martial arts." Dawn said with a stupidly happy smile, "Well. A little. We can't really practice together because of the chip."

"Which is a good thing." Tara told her, "I don't want her hurting you."

Dawn snorted, "Faith wouldn't really hurt me. I mean, she might hurt me but she wouldn't try to kill me. It would be fun hurt instead of kill hurt."

"Fun hurt?" Tara asked Dawn with the same skepticism she'd shown previously, "I see."

Dawn shrugged, "Actually, I don't think she would bother with me. She'd have better people to fun hurt. Like have you seen her room?"

Tara shook her head and Dawn pushed the door bell.

"Well, it's the same room Cordelia used to live in when she lived here." Dawn started explaining but stopped when the door opened and a battered and bruised Spike looked out the door.

"Oh god, Spike." Tara said, rushing to his side, "Are you okay?"

"Should we get you an icepack?" she asked as she supported his weight.

Spike sighed, "No. Vampire. My body's already cold enough. Icepacks won't do anything for me."

"What did this to you?" Dawn demanded.

"A dumpy brunette with really cute dimples." Spike half chuckled.

"Faith?" Dawn yelled, "Faith did that to you."

"Keep it down." Spike pleaded, "You don't want to wake her up. She's only just fallen into a drunken stupor."

"She is so going to get it." Dawn fumed, "Why would she do that? It's inhuman."

"Preaching to the choir, luv." Spike chuckled, "But then, you're forgetting, I'm not human."

"But she can't do that." Tara told him, "It's not right."

Spike shrugged, "In case you hadn't noticed, Faith is losing her marbles like they're going out of fashion. I'd say by next week, she'll be crazier than Dru ever was."

"Is that a lot?" Tara asked innocently, "I've never met Drusilla."

Dawn snorted and spun a finger around her temple, "Yeah. She's totally out of her tree."

Tara frowned, "She can't have been that crazy. She made Spike, didn't she? And he turned out okay, uh, for an evil fiend."

Spike smiled weakly, "Thanks, luv. It means a lot to me."

"Who is it?" Faith asked from the shadows of the basement door with so much crankiness in her raspy voice it was hard to believe, "Hey Dawn. What's what?"

Faith walked into the foyer with a half empty bottle of bourbon in her hands.

"Faith." Dawn cried at her, "Why did you beat up Spike? He can't even hurt you."

Faith play-pouted at Dawn as she moved across the foyer to where Spike was and she wrapped her hands around him.

"I did it because I could." was Faith's explanation as she held Spike possessively, "Why? You don't want me to?"

"No!" Dawn yelled at her, "I don't want to you to beat up Spike."

"You hear that?" Faith whispered into Spikes ears but loudly enough so everyone else could hear it, "I think she likes you."

Faith put her hands under Spike's shirt and lifted it as she stroked her chest and stomach from behind him, "I think she wants you."

Spike was looking at the floor, beaten and said "Faith. Don't. Please."

"She wants to screw your brains out." Faith told Spike as she looked Dawn in the eyes, "Don't you, Dawn? Come on. Have a free ride. I don't mind."

Then Faith unzipped Spike's pants and pulled out his manhood.

Dawn didn't even look though, she just ran screaming out the front door.

"Aww. She's no fun." Faith chuckled evilly as she stroked Spike's tool in front of Tara, "So Honey, you want to try doing it the right way?"

Tara didn't answer, she just walked up to Faith and jabbed her one in the eye.

This caused Faith to let go of Spike and cover her eye, "Ow! What was that for?"

"You're acting like an jerk." Tara told her as Spike zipped himself up and crept away into the shadows.

Faith laughed, "You crack me up. After all the shit that's happened to you and you're still so prim and proper. If I was in your place, I'd beat me down then use my hot girly body to get your lesbian self off."

"But I'm not you." Tara said with steel in her voice.

Faith snorted, "Come on, Willow doesn't have to know. You could just threaten to kill me if I ever told anyone."

"What is - what is wrong with you?"

"You know what I can't figure out?" Faith asked Tara, actually seriously, "How come you're not me? The way it sounds, your parents were even bigger assholes than mine."

"Don't talk about my parents like that."

"And in time, we'll become parents too and lie to our children. Well, maybe not me but you could adopt. Or get a sperm donor. You should pick Xander. He'll do you really good. Trust me, you'll like it."

Faith showed what she meant but with a few of her favorite pelvic thrusts and Tara wasn't impressed.

"You're disgusting." Tara told her.

As Tara walked away, Faith called out to her, "You know, my father was murdered too. See how much we've got in common."

Tara looked back to see Faith taking another swig of bourbon and then kept walking.

Outside, Tara looked for Dawn but couldn't find her so she ran down the driveway to the exit and found Dawn stomping away, down the roadside.

Dawn didn't realize Tara was coming up on her, so she didn't think to stop sobbing until Tara told her she was sorry.

Dawn stopped, looked at Tara and said "Not your fault. God made Faith a slayer as a way of compensating for the faulty brain she gave her."

"I'm sorry I took you here." Tara told her, "I shouldn't have. I should've known Faith was drinking."

"I brought you here." Dawn told her right back, "And I knew she'd be drinking. It's all she does now."

"Why do you keep going back to her then?" Tara asked, "You're only going to get yourself hurt."

Dawn hung her head low.

"When Faith first came to Sunnydale, we were never really friends but she told me how it really was. She told me how vampires really act, how dangerous it was to go out at night, stories of her greatest slays. She didn't treat me like a kid. Even Xander tries his best not to scare Buffy's little sister."

Tara didn't say anything and Dawn continued her story.

"You don't get how scary it is not to know what's going on but Faith, she didn't push me away. She even told me about what the things Buffy have done, which no one else has ever done. Out of everything she told me, I think that's the part I didn't like. How she looked up to Buffy so much. Then she went all evil and that didn't seem so important."

"Have you talked to Buffy about this?"

Dawn rolled her eyes, "In case you hadn't noticed, Buffy doesn't listen to me. It's like she can't bare to be in the same room as me."

Tara frowned, "Dawnie, that's just not true."

"Isn't it?" Dawn asked, "I'm starting to think there's something wrong with Buffy. She's been acting more of a drip than normal recently. I think that's why Riley left."

"I don't know." Tara admitted, "I think whatever happened between them happened just between them."

"You know what's really stupid?" Dawn asked, "I miss Riley. How dumb is that?"

"It's not dumb." Tara told her, "Okay, I don't miss him but maybe I should. He was a Scooby. He was one of us."

Dawn wiped her eyes and asked, "Instead of just standing here and crying all day, how about we go watch a movie?"

Tara nodded, "I haven't seen that cartoon one with the fish in it yet."

Dawn smiled weakly, "The one with the fish? Sounds good."

They started walking again and as they walked Dawn asked " Tara, can I ask a personal question."

"Sure."

"Faith, you think she's hot, right?"

Tara glared at Dawn playfully, "Yeah but you shouldn't know that."

Tara and Dawn both laughed together and were totally oblivious to the clapped out blue vintage Chevrolet convertible that pulled into the driveway to the Chase mansion.

OXOXOX

The doorbell rung and Faith growled as she moved to answer it.

"Can't I get some fucking peace!"

She opened the door to find Warren standing there with Buffy who had a blank face. Faith didn't seem to notice how Buffy stood there so still and was wearing clothes that only a guy with no fashion sense would pick out for her.

Faith stopped in her tracks, not expecting this, "What do you want?"

Warren blinked, not expecting her to be there either, "Doesn't Spike live here?"

"Yeah? So?"

"Could you get him for me?" Warren asked then added "I'm kinda in a hurry."

Faith sighed and yelled out into the house "Spike, come out or I'll kick your ass when I find you."

While waiting for Spike to arrive, Warren asked Faith "So you're a vampire too."

Faith walked out into the sunlight and faced him, "Yes. I'm a vampire. Talking of which, you still owe me for what your sex toy did to me."

"That's kinda why I'm here." Warren told her.

Spike laughed as he saw Warren and his Buffy shaped creation, "You really did it? I was starting to think you backed out on our arrangement."

Warren shook his head and lead the Buffybot into the house, "I'd never do that. Here she is as promised. New and improved."

"Spike, what did you do?" Faith asked as she waved her hands infront of the bot, "And where can I get some drugs like this? They must really be wicked."

"It's a robot." Spike told her.

"So we're done, aren't we?" Warren asked, "I did what you told me to do so that's it. I'm out of here."

"Did you put the extras in I asked for?" Spike asked.

Warren nodded, "All the special responses, all the heh-extra scenarios and skills. You'll be really happy with her. She's tricked out like you wouldn't believe. My best work. Now you said I could leave-"

"Before you crank this thing up, I want to know if you fixed that jealousy glitch."

Warren nodded, "Oh yeah. Nipped that one in the bud. You can screw a girlscout troupe and this baby will cheer you on. That's how much I fixed it."

"Girlscouts, huh?" Spike asked, "Might try that later then."

"Is that all?" Warren asked, eager to leave.

"Hang on." Spike growled at him, "How do I turn her on?"

"It's higher functions are voice activated." Warren explained.

Spike tilted his head and called out "Hey, Buffy. Wakey wakey."

Something inside the bot turned on and she flinched slightly then grinned like an idiot at Spike.

"Oh Spike!" Buffybot cried in want as she rushed Spike, held him in her arms and kissed him.

"Yeah, alright. She'll do." Spike said, grinning like an idiot himself.

"Great. Well, I'll let you get to it." Warren said then sprinted out the front door.

Faith laughed out loud, "Holy shit. That's so fucking hilarious. You've got your own Buffy sexbot. So all the time you spent killing Slayers what you really wanted to do was to get groiny with them?"

"Don't read that much into it." Spike told her as the Buffybot peppered his neck with kisses and rubbed itself against him.

Faith shrugged good-naturedly, "I totally get it."

"I suppose I could kill it." Spike contemplated as the bot pulled his shirt over his head.

"Kill it? Aren't you going to test it out first?" Faith asked.

"Oh yes. Kill me, Spike. Finish me off." Buffybot moaned as she tried to get Spike into the mood.

Spike looked at Faith oddly, "Test it? Why? I've got you, remember."

"Spike. You do NOT have me. I have you whenever I want. There's a big difference."

"Buffy, can you stop for a second." Spike asked her, "I'm kind of sore."

Buffy pouted, "Okay. But you should rest so we can make mad passionate sex later."

Spike smiled at her, "I will. I promise."

Faith stepped up and looked at the bot closer, "Hey robot B. I'm not sore, maybe we could have some fun."

"Hello, Faith. You're evil." the Bot said to Faith then asked Spike "Spike, should I be attracted to her?"

Spike blinked then nodded, "Yes. Very much so."

The bot smiled widely at Faith then moved over and started kissing her instead of Spike.

Faith moaned in appreciation as the bot held her tightly to itself.

Shaking her head clear for a second, Faith backed off and took a breath.

"Here's how it's going to go down." Faith told the bot, "You don't fuck me. I fuck you. Got that?"

The bot seemed a little uncertain but Faith didn't wait for it's question and went back to kissing it passionately.

Spike raised an eyebrow at this then shrugged, "Fine. Have fun. I'll be sleeping."

OXOXOX

Magic box

"Hello Miss Summers." Anya said cordially, "Have you come to buy something?"

Buffy smiled at her, "Have I ever brought anything here?"

Anya nodded, "Yes. There was that one time."

Buffy frowned and then laughed, "Oh yeah. I remember now. But no, I'm here for Giles."

Giles smiled in greeting from where he was looking through a pile of books.

"Good day Buffy, how may I be of service?" Giles asked.

"I had a dream." Buffy told him, "A bad one. It looked apocalyptic."

Giles frowned and Anya asked "How can you tell?"

Buffy sighed, "By the way the universe seemed to explode. I might be wrong and that screaming blue fire that engulfed the world could be harmless but by the way it was killing everything, I'm thinking apocalypse."

"Blue fire?" Giles asked as his brain whirred into gear, "Yes, I don't like the sound of that one bit. Was there anything else?"

Buffy nodded, "Quite a lot. I don't understand a lot of it. Normally my dreams are a little less cryptic. It's normally the prophecies in your books that don't make sense. But this dream, it came to me and I know it's important. I can feel that it's important but I just don't know what it's trying to warn me about."

"Maybe if you try to explain what happened to us." Giles suggested.

Buffy nodded then looked around the magic box and whispered "Where's Harmony?"

Giles frowned, "Xander and Harmony are going through some old files in town hall. Why? You've never shown an interest in her before."

"She was in the dream." Buffy told him, "A kind of major part too."

Giles paled, "What did she do?"

"That's the thing. I'm not entirely sure what she was doing. Imagine that the world was only being kept alive by a bunch of brightly glowing cherries that were kept in this wooden box. In my dream, Harmony was eating the cherries and it was killing the world. Dawn died and her skin fell off and then there was this tornado that sucked the magic box up into the sky and no one could see the darkness. It was so horrible."

While Buffy had a disturbed look on her face, the others were looking at her with raised brows.

"Did you eat Mexican before bed?" Giles asked, "Because I sometimes find that…"

Giles stopped talking at Buffy's glare.

"Banana's give me strange dreams too." Anya said, immune or oblivious to Buffy's glare, "And this one time I ate a hotdog before I went to bed and I had the strangest dream ever. I dreamt I was on the Cosby show and I couldn't get out."

Buffy shook her head, "No. This wasn't a tortilla induced dream. It was definitely Slayer class. I just don't know what it means. Since.. Since we Riley left me because he thought I was a lesbian and we chucked Tell out of town my instincts have gone all wonky. Like last week, a vampire actually crept up on me. Me! I'm the slayer with the good radar. Now I can't even tell when a vampire's creeping up on me."

"And you haven't kept up with your training regime either." Giles told her.

Buffy sat down at the table and groaned, "This is too much. I don't get it. There was this demon or something hiding in the shadows and Angel was there. I'm so confused. Giles, can you unconfuse me? You've done it before."

"There is something we could do. It's something I remember reading about it the watchers journals. I should be able to find the specifics if I try." Giles said as he tried to remember the specifics, "It's a vision quest in the desert. It would take a day, maybe two. Some slayers have found that it has helped them regain their focus and their clarity on their role as the Slayer."

Buffy nodded, "Okay. This I like. Let's do that."

"It may take some time for me to work out the procedure." Giles told her, "So why don't you get ready at your end. Pack for a night."

Buffy nodded, "Great. I'll be back within the hour,"

Giles grinned, "I'll be waiting."

As Buffy left, Anya raised an eyebrow at Giles who was smiling slightly.

"Why are you smiling?" Anya asked him, "You know this means I'm going to have to run the store while you're away."

Giles kept smiling, "I don't know why but I feel good about this. I think Buffy's life is about to turn around for the better."

OXOXOX

"Chocolate!" Glory roared in anger as she squished a bar of Vamp Candy in her hands, "You think chocolate can stop me? I am a goddess!"

One of her minions handed her another bar and she gleefully crushed it with her super powered might, "Ben! How did he know that this was my weakness? I didn't even know that! Chocolate! It's so brown and mushy and.. so tasty."

"Glorificus! No! If you eat it you will revert back to Ben." warned Jinx, perhaps her most brave minion.

In a huff, she threw down her arms, showering him in flecks of chocolate, "ARR! You're right. Get me some normal chocolate to eat. Green M&M's!"

"Green M&M's!" Jinx called, "You three. Find these delicacies now. Raid the human food dispenser in the lobby. We must find the freshest, most verdant candies for our god."

Those three minions rushed out of the room to do Glory's bidding.

"In the meantime, why don't you sample some champagne?" Jinx asked, offering a platter of cheeses with a some sparkling wine in two glasses, "That always makes you feel better."

Glory looked at the platter and in agreement took one of the wine glasses and slowly sipped the contents with a smile on her face.

Then she spat it out, spraying the wine all over Jinx and then throwing the glass at the floor.

"Disgusting!" Glory yelled, outraged, "You would serve me vinegar?"

Jinx stumbled back under the wrath of his god, "No. It's the finest this meager world has to offer for your re-emergence, I swear. Perhaps, maybe your brilliantly cultured palate has been temporarily tainted by the vast quantities of tainted chocolate Ben has been gorging himself on."

Glory stopped at this and frowned, "How was Ben anyway? Did he look fat?"

"As always he is humanities greatest but vainest attempt to rival your graciousness." Jinx told her, "Despite the fact that we tied him down for a week until the effects of the chocolate wore out, he was looking better than ever. Perhaps slightly younger."

"Where are we?" Glory asked, looking around the dingy basement apartment the minions had stashed Ben in.

" Los Angeles." Jinx told her.

"LA?" Glory asked then smiled, "I wonder if they still have my room reserved."

"Your most glorious luminescence, there are other more important matters than accommodation to deal with."

Glory narrowed her eyes at his impudence, "There are?"

"Without your slender yet firm hands to guide us, we have been floundering in our own soiled robes. The brotherhood has all but disbanded except a few of your most loyal, which I am glad to be counted one of. Also, we would not presume to have the power to perform certain rituals for you. Rituals which only you can perform. Rituals which have not been prepared for by your most sultry one. Rituals which we no longer have the opportunity to perform due to your most painful absence."

Glory glared at him, "Are you telling me that even if we had the key now, we wouldn't even be able to use it?"

"The stars have passed." Jinx told her as he begged, "But we cannot give up. There must be a way."

"What way?" Glory hissed at him as she dragged him to his feet and very physically held him by the collar of his cloak, "Tell me now."

"There is a demon." Jinx wheezed, "He stole many of your followers away from you with the promise of an incredible power. Perhaps this power could be used to your advantage."

"Incredible power?" Glory growled at him and dropped him to the floor, "That's fricken vague."

After a moments thought, she said "I've got nothing else to do. Let's pay this demon a visit."

OXOXOX

Washington DC.

Willow was sitting in front of Henry Hayes, the recently inaugurated president of the United States. Not only this but she was in the oval office and she didn't have a clue how she got there. She remembered a plane and a certain amount of walking but beyond that it was all a blur.

Now she was sitting in the oval office with the president, General Hammond, Daniel Jackson, the Vice President and the chairman of the joints chiefs of staff. Willow was trying really hard to remember what the chairman of the joints chiefs of staff actually did. She was sure it was something about delegation.

Daniel was explaining a few things to the president.

"From what I can figure out, the more dangerous aspects of the supernatural are leftovers from a series of war that happened millennia ago that are collectively known as the chaos wars. You could liken them to modern day landmines. A threat that lingers long after the war is finished."

"How could I not know of this?" Hayes asked.

"It's insane." Willow blurted out and at the presidents look, she explained, "If someone told you that they just saw a vampire or someone turn into a werewolf or a demon, your first instinct is to think they're insane. If you saw some of the things out there, you might think you've just gone insane and chalk it up as an LSD flashback or a psychotic break and try to forget about it. No one wants to be insane because if you are then men in white suits will come and take you away. Which is.. not good."

"No, I mean how could I not know of this? I'm the president. Don't we have anyone working on this problem?"

"When we found out about this ourselves, our first plan of action was to find an agency who dealt with the supernatural." Daniel told the president, "From our research we have come to the conclusion that there are branches of the government who are in the know. It turns out that every police department used to have a box or a filing cabinet which was filled with unexplained and unusual cases. That was until the thirties, during the inhibition, when one of our agencies, I don't know which, visited every single PD in America and took every single box of unexplainable cases. There are a few rumors that it was inland revenue but I suspect it was the FBI."

"Why the FBI?" asked General Maynard, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, "CIA would be more likely."

"Because the FBI is where all the unexplainable cases are currently being sent. They call them the X-files. It's one of the few publicly acknowledged operations but I'm sure there are more. There are probably shadow groups working in the CIA and the military too."

"Like the initiative." Willow said absent-mindedly.

"The initiative?" Daniel asked.

"Oh-uh." Willow said, blushing in embarrassment, "I didn't mention them before?"

"No." Daniel told her, shaking his head slightly.

"They were Army." explained Willow, "They were operating in Sunnydale. They were experimenting on the demons. One of the doctors went a little crazy and made a Frankenstein monster that she called Adam and .. it wasn't pleasant. Lots of soldiers died."

"I swear, I know nothing about this." General Maynard stated as fact, "But I will dig into it."

The President nodded grimly, "An autonomous covert op with the apparent support of the US military. That's every Presidents worse nightmare."

"It's also quite possible that several presidents have known about this threat and created their own personal agencies." Daniel added, "I found a few scraps of information about an agency called the spook-house which was founded by Theodore Roosevelt. It's possible that it disbanded once he left office but it's quite possible it didn't. It might still be active today."

"I believe we're jumping to conclusions here." said Vice-President Kinsey, "If these demons, as you so aptly call them, if they've been living on earth for so long, they obviously pose very little threat to national security. We obviously outnumber them. If they were any threat at all, they would've attacked already."

"They have." Willow shot back at him, "Lots of times. One of my childhood friends was turned into a vampire and tried to kill me. My ex-boyfriend now has to lock himself in a cage three nights a lunar month because he was bit by a werewolf. My girlfriend's father was killed by a demon as a birthday to her. And I haven't even mentioned the dark ages or what happened during the war of the roses or how ghost towns normally become ghost towns by demons running through them and eating everyone."

"Why did you bring this particular civilian here?" Kinsey asked Hammond, "She's obviously emotionally disturbed."

Willow's red tint from embarrassment turned into red from anger, "You .. You meatball head. The supernatural is just as much threat as the Goa'uld. Just in Sunnydale, they've tried to destroy the world as we know it six or seven times."

"We don't need to listen to this." scoffed Kinsey, "What we want is facts."

Willow focused and asked calmly, "How about the fact that I can crush your windpipe using just the power of my mind? How much threat does the supernatural pose now?"

Kinsey looked at her oddly then a panicked look crossed his face as he tried to cough something out of his throat but couldn't.

His eyes starting bugging out until Hammond said, "That's enough!"

Then Kinsey slumped down and gasped for air, "Henry, that girl is a security threat. You should have her escorted out of this room right now."

Willow smiled meanly at the VP, "I see I made my point."

"So you're a demon?" the president asked, squinting at her.

Willow chuckled, "No, I'm one hundred percent human."

"So how did you just do that then?" the president asked.

"Magic is a natural part of the universe. Most people just never learn how to use it. In fact, are you Christian?"

"Why yes, I am." The President said proudly.

Willow smiled, "Then you'll be happy to know that the cross repels vampires along with a few other religious symbols. The supernatural doesn't just cover the things that go bump in the night but the other side of the spectrum too."

"You're talking about angels?" Henry asked.

"Um, ah, I don't think I've met any angels yet." Willow chuckled nervously, "But you never know. Everything else seems to exist."

"So these demons, you're telling me they come from hell?" the president asked.

Willow shook her head, "No. Not really. There are a few dimensions which are so bad that people call them hell. Some demons actually leave their homes and come here as refugees instead of invaders."

The president nodded as he heard this and finally got a grip on the situation. Hammond stood up and said "We've taken up enough of your time. I think we'll let you look through those folders while we continue our investigations. I'm sure with Miss Rosenburg's unique perspective we will uncover even more intel which we will feed directly to your office."

Hayes stood up from his seat behind the desk and took Hammonds hand and shook it, "That would be great. Look into this Initiative. And you, Willow Rosenburg, I'll be watching your career with great interest."

Willow looked down to the Presidents hand and shook it with an embarrassed smile.

He took the time to shake Daniel's hand and pat General Maynard on the back, muttering something about keeping him informed and everyone left the office except for the President and the Vice President.

The Vice President laid back on the couch, glaring at the door they left through.

"That girl. It was a mistake bringing her here." said the VP.

"Really?" the President asked, "I thought you were all for more civilian involvement in the SGC."

"You can't trust her. Obviously she's a conscientious objector with these demon aliens." Kinsey told the President, "Did you see what she did to me?"

"She did that to make her point, which she has." Hayes replied as he moved back behind the desk to read the small collection of folders that the SGC had compiled for his eyes only, "But don't you worry. I'm keeping an eye on her."

OXOXOX

A quaint little bungalow in the suburbs of LA.

Doc's books littered the floor and he knelt beaten and broken in a few places.

Behind him stood Glorificus and in front of him stood the entity that he only knew as the Seeker. The Seeker while having no claim to a human lineage had taken the form of a wide-chested, red haired man that would've looked at home on the set of Braveheart.

For the life of him, Doc couldn't tell which of them was going to kill him first.

"Why did you summon me?" the Seeker angrily asked Doc with a slightly gaelic accent, "I have more important matters to attend to than babysitting a deity."

Glory gasped in astonishment, "Hello, I'm standing right here."

"What to do you want anyway?" the Seeker asked Glory, looking at her this time.

"To get home!" Glory yelled at him, "To get back to my followers."

"You're Glorificus, aren't you?" The Seeker asked, "Yes, getting you back to your home dimension might be problematic. You'll need something to help you. Have you ever heard of the key?"

Glory growled, "Yes! I've been trying to find it since I first came here. But it turns out that I haven't performed the rituals in time to create the nexus of energies that are necessary for the key to be any use. So the key doesn't matter even if I had it."

The Seeker raised an eyebrow, "Oh, I wouldn't say that. I know one or two rituals you might not know of. If you get the key, I'll make it work for you. There's a small chance that it wouldn't get you home and it would just destroy this dimension."

"I don't care!" Glory said truthfully, "Minions, find me the key! Now!"

"I can help with that too." The Seeker told Glory and she spun back around and smiled at him.

"Really?" Glory asked, surprised.

The Seeker nodded and smiled, "It's close. Very close."

He looked around the room and spotted Murk, one of Glory's minions, "You. Come here."

Murk looked to Glory and hesitantly stood forward.

The Seeker looked him over and took something out from one of the pouches Murk had slung over his shoulder.

"What is this?" The seeker asked as he looked at the bar of vampcandy, "Why is the key in a chocolate bar?"

"The key. That is it's new form. Chocolate!" Murk cried triumphantly, "Glorificus has been eating the key all along."

Seeker frowned as he looked at the chocolate bar, "No. This is only a small portion of the key energy. It's not the source. Chocolate for vampires? It's got blood in it. Blood from the key. That must mean it's in human form. Do you know what that means?"

"It's weak and squishy?" Glory asked.

The Seeker laughed, "Well, yes but so much more than that. The key isn't just in human form like you and I are. It IS human. The good guys slipped up. Only they could create a pure human vessel but I can do things with humanity you wouldn't believe."

Glory shrugged, "I don't have to believe. People believe in me."

The demon laughed, "You don't get it, do you? I've been waiting for a chance like this for ages. To be more precise I would say since the bronze age. With the key in human form we don't have to worry about the stars aligning or the correct convergence of portents. I can make the key a true key for you. A blade which can cut through the fabric of time and space and take you wherever you want to go."

"All I want to know is can it get me home?" Glory asked.

The Seeker smiled, "Of course. But first, why don't we find the key?"

He took out a largish crystal from inside his ratty leather jacket, waved a hand over it which caused it to glow slightly then he gave it to Murk.

"Find the source of the blood that is used to make this chocolate and you will find the key."

OXOXOX

Faith's bedroom.

Faith had totally renovated Cordelia's room since she'd moved in. Faith's idea of renovation were along the lines of painting the walls black and installing shackles and tackles to the walls, just as she had told Cordelia she would.

The main feature of the room was the bed, which was a luxurious king sized double bed which actually took up a large portion of the already large room.

Right now, Faith was naked, lying back and sweating pleasantly as the Buffybot pleasured her from under the covers.

Faith smiled as the bot moved under the covers, her breasts gliding smoothly over her own skin until it was face to face with her.

"Was that better?" the Buffybot asked, eager to please.

"That was amazing." Faith replied, "I loved it."

"I should get back to Spike now."

"No." Faith shook her head fast before the bot could leave, "Spike is sleeping. He'll be angry if you wake him."

"But he was sleeping before." said Buffybot.

"Vampires sleep for a long time." Faith told the bot over and rolled them both over so she was on top, "Until then, let's just stay here. I'm not so bad, am I?"

"No, you make nice noises." Buffybot replied then gasped as Faith touched her somewhere sensitive, "Ooh Faith, you're so good to me."

Faith smiled and put a little more pressure into her work, "Damn, you're so hot."

"It's all for you, baby."

Faith mashed her mouth against hers and they slowly set up a rhythm as they rubbed themselves against each other.

"I love you." Faith croaked as a tears rolled down her face, "You're just so damn good."

OXOXOX

Sunnydale, vampire chocolate factory.

Jeremy blinked his eyes awake and found himself comfortably sandwiched between Cocoa and Candy.

He knew those weren't their real names but he didn't care. The truth was he was beyond caring. He was getting way more ass than when he was alive and they could call themselves snap, crackle and pop if they wanted.

He was a drug dealer when he was alive and now that he was dead, he fell right back into the habit.

When he was alive he pawned most of his drugs off to rich preppy types in Orange County which was the complete opposite of his current market. He pushed chocolate on to vampires.

It basically required the same skills. Convincing a skeptical audience that what he was selling will make them feel more alive than they'd ever been before. He'd had the supplies to give out free samples too which had the whole process moving along nicely.

He laughed a little at this, finding the fact that he was working for the good guys to be hilarious. Even the scary little voice that wiggled in the back of his head found this perversely funny.

Pulling his pants up over his legs, he moved to the rails outside his bedroom and looked over the operation.

Below him, vampires wrapped, packaged and readied chocolate for delivery. Occasionally they sampled the goods too and the thought of it made him want to kick some ass but he let it be. Some of the girls looked up at him and he waved down on them like he was the pope.

He tried explaining the business to his human employers but they were totally uninitiated to the drug culture. So, he basically ran the choc in Sunnydale for them and he was slowly making his presence known in LA. He pushed his wares on vampires who were fresh from the grave and kept them coming back for more. When rival vampires moved on his boys, he came back swinging with not only with his gang but the Slayer's crew too. It was a dealers dream come true, having the law on his side but not having to pay for it.

There was still the demon problem. His vampires were no match for them but with careful planning, he was sure they could get rid of the big rollers amongst them.

There was a knock at the large roller doors which were locked shut during the day.

One of the workers sauntered over, pulled back a little slot and started talking to someone outside as Jeremy watched them lazily.

"Hey, did anyone order a pizza?" The vampire hollered.

Before anyone could reply, the roller door was torn away like tin foil and sunlight streamed into the factory. Vampires screamed and blew up into flames like wet, sputtering fireworks.

"Shit!" he swore and dove back into the office and grabbed the AK47 assault rifle which the Slayer didn't know he owned.

Unlike most of the vampires there, he actually remembered that he had vampire agility and he used that to his advantage as he jumped over the railings and into the middle of the floor below.

Seeing the demons coming his way, he let loose with the AK47 and bullets flew out to send them running and squealing in fear.

"You want some too?" he yelled at the approaching blonde and let loose again. Instead of stopping her she just knocked the gun out of his hands and lifted him off the ground with one hand around his throat.

He kicked at her to no avail while she looked around the vampires huddling in fear. Some of them were nursing their burn wounds pitifully.

"You're vampires." Glory said as she sniffed at him.

"You're all vampires and you make this infernal chocolate?" Glory asked, "But vampires aren't supposed to eat chocolate. That can't be healthy."

Glory looked at the individual vampires and stated to Jeremy, "You're the master vampire, aren't you? So tell me, where do you get the blood to make this chocolate?"

Jeremy only had the strength to say "Grk!"

Sighing, Glory dropped Jeremy onto the floor and pressed one of her high heeled shoes down on his groin and asked again, "Where do you get the blood?"

"I don't know where the blood comes from." Jeremy whined, "We just get a shipment every month from this witch called Willow."

"Where do I find this Willow?" Glory asked, twisting her foot slightly.

"The Slayer! She's the Slayer's friend. They hang out together."

Glory smiled, "Thanks."

Then she soccer kicked him incredibly hard which launched him into the air and through one of the windows which was painted black. The window broke and let in another stream of burning sunlight fun which claimed even more vampires.

In the panic and screaming, Glory left with a smile on her face.

OXOXOX

Continued in next chapter.


	2. One good day

OXOXOX

The night came to the desert suddenly and Buffy found herself huddling in front of the fire to keep warm in the cold desert air while she had the most inane conversation with her spirit guide.

"I already told you, I'm not a lesbian." Buffy told the spirit guide, "I get that it's okay if I am but is it okay if I'm not? I'm feeling kinda pressured to say I'm gay, which I'm not."

Buffy's guide, the form of the first slayer, swayed with the flames of the bonfire.

"It's not a good feeling." Buffy told her guide, "So can we please just drop it?"

"No, we cannot. There is still more that needs to be said." the guide said enigmatically.

Buffy groaned.

OXOXOX

"Faith." Spike hissed, "Wake up."

Faith pulled up the sheets to cover herself from the cold a bit more but didn't open her eyes.

Spike moved forward and nudged Faith awake.

For his efforts, he got clobbered across the face by Faith.

"Trying to sleep." Faith mumbled, "Tired."

"Where's the robot gone?"

"Isn't she with you?" Faith asked as she snuggled up in her blanket a bit more.

"No and I can't find her in the mansion."

"I remember her coming into my room to change but nothing beyond that." Spike told her, "I thought she went back to you."

Faith shook her head and mussed her hair away from her face, "Nope. Haven't seen her. Heh, wouldn't mind having another go right about now. It'd help me sleep."

"So you enjoyed it?" Spike asked, full of humor.

"Oh man. It's not humanly possible the things she can do with her tongue." Faith chuckled, "She's probably just wandering around looking for a power socket."

Spike frowned, "Uh. I just had a very bad thought."

"What?" Faith asked as she ebbed back asleep.

"The Buffybot, it's designed to slay vampires. Maybe it's out on patrol."

Faith's eyes shot wide open.

Now she was awake.

OXOXOX

Willow and Tara were patrolling a graveyard in Buffy's absence. Xander offered to escort them but they declined, seeing as there wasn't much evil vampire action happening and they could run away from danger just as good as he could.

Besides, Willow told him, they were only going to field test a few devices the SGC had given Willow.

"So you really met the President?" Tara asked, "You met Henry Hayes in the Whitehouse."

Willow nodded gleefully, "Yeah."

"That is so cool. What was he like? How did he deal with the whole vampires thing?"

Willow considered this, "Better than I did."

"Was he sexy?" Tara asked with a smirk.

Willow blinked at her, scandalized, "No. He's a guy."

Tara snickered, "Come on. He's the president. He must've been a little sexy."

Willow glared at Tara, "You know you're going to get it now."

This just made Tara smiled even more until she frowned, "These guys must be from out of town."

Willow turned away from Tara and pulled out her goa'uld zat'nicatel and fired a volley of blue ray beams into the bunch of rampaging vampires to apparently no effect at all.

Before they could reach them, Willow brought up her other hand which was wearing a goa'uld palm weapon. She let loose a gravity blast from it which knocked the vampires off their feet.

By now, Tara had the Scythe out and was wielding it with the stake end pointed out. When one of the vampires in front got up, she shoved the stake through its chest, dusting it. Another tried to charge her and she punched at it with the axe blade, decapitating it.

Willow had the palm device charged up again and knocked two of the vampires back but she didn't have any more power to hit the one sneaking up on Tara.

" Tara!"

At the last possible moment, Tara moved to the side and the lunging vampire impaled itself on the stake end of the scythe as she held it out.

After that, the other vampires decided to take off, leaving the two girls alone.

Seeing this, Tara looked at Willow calmly, "You called my name?"

"Smart ass." Willow smirked.

"Die evil fiend!" they heard Buffy's cheerful battle cry in the distance, the same direction the vampires had run too.

"Buffy's back." Tara was the first to say it.

Willow smiled at her, "Let's go say hello."

"Stick that in your cake and bake it." came another glib one-liner as they came upon Buffy getting outnumbered by even more vampires than they thought were in the graveyard.

"We should help." Willow told Tara, "Move in after I attack. Last time worked pretty well."

Tara nodded and Willow stalked forwards with her hand outstretched.

When Willow let loose, she sent six vampires sprawling and Tara moved in to help finish them off.

Out of nowhere, a black blur ripped into the vampires, beating them away with easily as much force as Willow's attack.

"Faith?" Tara asked in confusion.

"Yeah? What?" Faith asked as she struggled to break a vampires neck, "Hey. Anyone got a spare stake? I left mine at home."

"Slayer!" One of the vampires hissed at Faith.

"That's my name, don't wear it out." said Buffy as she dusted another vampire.

"Faith." Willow called and tossed her a stake.

Faith grinned as she caught the stake, "Thanks Red, I owe you a beer."

Then Faith head butted a vampire and kicked it in the head as it went down for the count.

The last four vampires swarmed Faith and put her on the defensive.

Buffybot dusted one.

Tara dusted another with the stake end of the Scythe.

One got a nice right hook on Faith's jaw but she recovered in time to spin with the momentum of the blow and dust it with a heart shot.

When Faith turned to the last and very doomed vampire, she saw it looking at her with lethal intent.

It really should have been watching Willow as she calmly walked up to it with her hand outstretched and pointed directly at his head.

The point blank shockwave Willow released broke the vampires neck and sent it flying up into the air only to impale itself on a tree's broken branch, ten feet up in the air.

"What the fuck is that thing?" Faith yelled at Willow while Buffy and Tara went to finishing off the few prone vampires on the ground.

Willow smirked at Faith, "Oh, this little thing? Just a toy the air-force wanted me to try out."

Faith frowned, "Oh, okay then. If you get any more toys be sure to share them."

"Buffy, when did you get back?" Willow asked, "And you're slaying vampires with Faith?"

"Why wouldn't I? I'm the vampire slayer and she is the vampire slayer…"

The Buffybot frowned as its logic circuits tried to unknot a little snag it just ran into.

"So how did the vision quest go?" Willow asked, "Good I hope?"

"I don't understand that question but thank you for asking it." Buffy replied.

"I guess since you don't have Tell to patrol with, you're doing it with Faith now." guessed Tara.

"Tell is a gormless twit who wouldn't even know what to do with a woman if he was man enough to get one." stated Buffy, "And yes. I am doing it with Faith."

"It's okay." Tara told Buffy, "You don't have to make me feel better about Tell."

"You're right. I don't. You have Willow for that." Buffy said with a slightly unnerving smile, "You're lesbians. I think that's neat."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Willow asked Buffy, "You seem a little off. Maybe you should take a rest. Vision quests can take a lot out of you."

Buffy thought about this, "I'm due for another recharge in a few hours but until then let's enjoy our time together."

Faith stood in front of Buffy with a big fake smile, "Actually me and Buffy need to talk about Slayer things. You know how it is. So why don't you run off to your college pep rally and we'll settle things in the graveyard, okay?"

Tara looked at Willow while Willow looked at Buffy.

Buffy, strangely, looked at Faith and said "But I want-"

Buffy was cut off by Faith putting her hand over Buffy's mouth and she kept talking for a moment but with only muffled sounds coming out.

Faith smiled weakly, "Actually, it turns out that Buffy got hungry and ate a funky cactus in the desert. You don't have to worry, I'll have her home in no time. Right, Buffy?"

Buffy nodded with her mouth still being covered.

The two witches frowned and Willow asked "Are you sure?"

Faith nodded, "Yeah. We'll be fine as long as Buffy doesn't run off to slay more vampires on the way home."

"If you're sure." Willow said hesitantly and the two witches started walking out of the graveyard with Faith watching them go.

Once they had gone out of hearing distance, Faith took her hand off the Bot's mouth and asked it, "Why did you just leave like that?"

"Vampires to slay." Buffy said with a shrug then frowned, "But now that I've done the slaying, I'm all worked up. I thought I would be satisfied but I'm not. I feel there's something else I should be doing."

With that, the Buffybot moved up intimately to Faith with an endearing, hopeful smile and started smoothing her hands over Faith's shoulders.

Faith bit back a smile, "You shouldn't slay vampires anymore, okay? You could get hurt. It's dangerous. Let me do it all."

"But I'm the slayer. It's what I do."

Faith pouted, "But you're the only one who can get me off just how I like it."

"I'm important to you?" Buffy asked as it gently laid Faith down onto a grass.

Faith nodded, "You're so important."

Buffy smiled and planted a trail of kisses down Faith's neck, unzipping her pants as she did.

"I can't resist you." Buffy said breathlessly as she worked her way down Faith, "I've just got to taste you again."

Tara and Willow stared at each other wide-eyed and opened mouthed as they huddled behind a low hedge, watching this go on.

Then they scrambled frantically out of the graveyard to get help.

OXOXOX

Summer's household.

Joyce was out of town for the night, on a vacation which Buffy and Dawn had insisted she go on. So Xander and Anya were looking after Dawn while Buffy was on her vision quest. Dawn, however, was not in the room with them.

"You're spending more time with her than me." Anya whined.

Xander groaned, "Anya. I'm only going to say this three times. There is absolutely nothing between me and Harmony."

"I've seen it a thousand times. It's always the secretary."

"It's not the secretary." Xander told her, "It's the work."

To emphasize his point, he prodded a finger at the stack of manila folders that the SGC had him looking through.

"It's the blonde bombshell, that's what it is. Fess up."

Xander groaned, "Anya. You're talking about Harmony. Do you remember how she treated me in school? It's all I can do not to stake her in the heart myself. I only hired her as a special favor to Giles."

Anya nodded skeptically, "Uh huh, Harmony, a seductive vampire with the body of a porn star. You know who she reminds me of? Cordelia, who you also cheated on."

"Anya. How do I know you're not having an affair with Giles? You work with him."

Anya was appalled at the suggestion, "Giles? I would never. He's.. my employer."

"And he's strong and brave and a plays guitar. He's a manly man."

Anya looked at Xander oddly, "You've really thought about him a lot, haven't you?"

"No. Not really."

"Oh god. You're gay." Anya groaned, "First Buffy and now you. That's why you've acting so strange around me."

"I'm not gay!"

"The first stage is always denial."

"Buffy isn't gay either." Xander told her, "Look I'll show you."

Xander kissed Anya passionately then broke away from the kiss, breathing hard.

Anya smiled at him then asked "You weren't thinking of Giles right then?"

Xander shot her an incredulous look, "Alright, this is going too far."

Anya put her hands around his and gave him a pleading look, "I just want to know what's going on with us."

Xander looked pensive as he was about to tell Anya something important but was saved by a frantic knocking at the door.

"I'll just get that." Xander said with a sigh of relief.

Once he opened the door for Willow and Tara, they stumbled in, looking very frazzled.

Willow looked around the room and asked Xander, "Where's Dawn?"

"Upstairs, asleep." Anya told them, "As long as Xander didn't wake her up with his yelling at me."

"What's wrong?" Xander asked them, "Did something happen to Buffy?"

"You could say that." Willow said, shaking her head in the positive.

"I need to sit down." Tara said as she sat down on the couch then abruptly stood up, "No, I need to stand up."

"What's happened to Buffy?" Xander asked Willow, holding her by the shoulders, "Is she hurt?"

"No." Willow clarified then vaguely said "She and Faith just kinda.."

"Yeah. Buffy and Faith.." Tara added.

"Buffy and Faith what?" Anya asked, "They robbed a bank? They killed someone else? They had sex together? What?"

"That's it." Tara told her, "The last one."

"They had sex together?" Xander asked skeptically.

The witches nodded and a twisted smile crept onto his face.

"Ow." he coughed as Anya him in the stomach.

"Buffy can't. She's not.. She's not really gay." Dawn said as she wandered in from the kitchen, surprising everyone as she did, "She's too boring to be a lesbian."

"Uh, Dawn." Xander said in surprise, "We thought you went to bed."

"I think I'm going to throw up." Dawn said, looking decidedly greener, "Because of what Buffy must have been doing to Faith when she was in a coma."

Even Xander found his mind going into cringe-worthy territory at that idea.

"I don't think Buffy would have done anything to Faith." Tara said, totally not sure of what Buffy was capable of now that her mental image of her had been so shattered.

"I don't get it. Why is everyone attracted to Buffy and never me?" Dawn asked.

"I don't want to have sex with Buffy." Anya told Dawn.

Dawn glared at the ex-demon.

"Okay, If I wasn't seeing Xander I wouldn't throw her out of bed." Anya admitted.

Xander's mouth fell open and Anya asked him "What? You're gay?"

Anya rolled her eyes, "Xander, where do you think I was getting my action from when I was a man-hating she-demon? Not from guys, that's for sure."

This was just one shock too many for Tara and she said "I need to sit down." but she kept standing though in an almost catatonic state.

"I guess you could call me bisexual." Anya told Xander, "I'm not that really picky about gender. I'm not entirely sure why the two lesbians in the room are having such a hard time with this. I agree that it's weird how they're mortal enemies and they hate each other but-"

"Hey there." Buffy said as she walked into living room from the kitchen, "Hello Dawn. You're my favorite sister in the whole wide world."

Dawn cringed as Buffy moved in and hugged her.

"I'm your only sister." Dawn mumbled, still in shock and unable to look her sister in the eyes.

"And that makes you special." Buffy said with a grin, "So what is up, guys?"

"Uh. There's some demon killing the chocolate loving vampires." Xander told her, looking at her oddly, "We could kill them, I guess. No hurry."

Buffy grinned, "Yes. I like to kill evil."

"You should change though, into something more fighty." Anya suggested.

Buffy smiled again, "I can do that. I'll be right back."

Everyone else watched her as she bounded up the stairs to her room.

"Did she seem a little spacey to you?" Willow whispered to the group.

"Yes." Anya said, nodding, "Ooh. Maybe Faith is using some sort of mojo on Buffy to turn her into her willing love slave."

"Or she could just be a lesbian." Xander suggested, "And that spacey look is just the afterglow of hot slayer on slayer action."

When everyone stared at him he explained himself, "The signs are all there."

"What signs?" Dawn asked him, "I don't see any signs."

"Okay, it's obvious that Faith has some sort of hold over Buffy." Willow told them, "So what do we do? An intervention?"

Xander sighed, "Yeah. We can't really keep her like this. She'd kill us when the spell wears off."

The front door opened and Buffy was standing there in some dark brown pants, a green turtle neck and a brown coat. In short, not what she was wearing a minute ago.

"Hey guys. I'm hoping this group bonding isn't for some big bad that's reared its head."

The others looked surprised and Willow said "That-that was quick."

Buffy shrugged, "Didn't seem like it to me. More like a waste of time."

"Buffy, we need to talk." Willow told her.

"What's wrong?" Buffy asked, alarmed, "Did something happen to Mom?"

"No. Joyce is fine." Willow replied.

"We're worried about you." Xander told her, "What you've been doing, how you've been acting."

"We think you've been hexed." Anya put it bluntly.

"Huh? Since when?" Buffy asked, backing up, "This is kinda reminding me of the time I left town then came back and Xander was the mayor."

The mayor chuckled, "Yeah. Those were good times but this is serious. We know what you've doing with Faith."

Buffy blinked, "Faith? What do you mean?"

"You're boinking Faith." said Anya, "We know."

Buffy tried to wrap her head around what Anya said and failed somewhat, "Whoa nelly! I have NOT been sleeping with Faith. You're just jumping to conclusions. Pole-vaulting to conclusions is more like it."

"No one's judging you." Willow told her, "There's only love here."

Buffy shook her head, exasperated, "First the spirit guide hassles me about being gay and now you guys too? This is too much. Just .. Just leave me alone."

"Buffy, it's okay." Tara told her, " Willow and I know how hard it can be to come out but trust me, you'll feel so much better when you do."

Buffy took a deep breath in and calmed herself.

"Okay everyone. I've got something to say. I know it might come as a shock but here it is. I like guys and I don't feel the need to sleep with members of the same sex. Phew. There it is. I said it. It's like the weight of the world was just lifted off my shoulders."

Willow sighed, "Buffy. We saw you."

Buffy blinked, "What do you mean?"

"With Faith." said Willow, avoiding Buffy's eye contact, "We saw you making love to Faith."

"But how?" Buffy asked, totally bewildered, " Willow. Why the hell would you say you saw that? You're not only telling me I'm gay but Faith is gay too and we're lovers!"

"We get it, Buffy." Xander told her, "It's that whole Slayer connection thing you two have."

Buffy looked at him horrified, "My god! If I was gay I'd at least have some taste in girls. I wouldn't pick Faith!"

"We saw you." Tara repeated Willow's previous statement, "We were in the same graveyard when you did.. that."

Buffy sighed "Oh god. I'm never going to live down the fact that Riley left me because he thought I was gay."

Dawn gasped, "Holy cow! That's why he left?"

Buffy groaned, "Yeah. It was. But guys, I'm not gay. I don't know what you saw but it wasn't me having sex with Faith. It must have been some swamp gas or a weather balloon."

"We think you're under a spell. Just try to remain calm and we'll just .. tie you down." Xander said, "It's for your own safety."

Buffy gave him a cold look that told him he wouldn't be getting any rope near her tonight.

That was when Faith ran through the door, panting as if she had been running all over town.

"There you are." Faith said angrily, "Where the hell did you go? I was just walking along and then blam! you're gone again. What's with that?"

Buffy looked at her, confused.

"Come on, we've got that thing to do, remember?" Faith gestured with her head for Buffy to leave, "The thing with Spike that's kinda important."

Buffy frowned at her, "What thing? I didn't plan anything with Spike. What are you talking about?"

Faith's eyes widened as she realized this was the real Buffy.

"Oh." Faith gasped, "My bad. Spike didn't tell you. I'll just go find and kick his ass. Bye."

But before Faith could leave, Xander closed the door and blocked her exit.

"I don't think so, Missy." Xander said angrily, "What did you do to Buffy."

Faith felt trapped but tried not to show it, "Don't know what you're talking about. Get out of the way."

"We know you've had sex with Buffy." Dawn told Faith, "I just want to know why?"

When Dawn said that, Faith looked at Buffy accusingly, "Why would you tell them that?"

Buffy glared at her, "Me? It's not me. Whatever is happening, it's not me. I wash my hands with it."

Spike came in the back door and sighed with relief when he saw Buffy, "Oh. There she is."

Buffy looked Spike up and down and said "Nice shiner."

Spike smirked, "Yeah thanks.. Oh."

Buffy stormed over to him and grabbed his arm then pushed him until he was standing next to Faith.

"Okay. What's going on?" Buffy asked them.

Spike looked at Faith and asked "Did you do something? Wasn't me this time."

Faith shrugged, "I don't know what they're talking about."

"Is everything okay? I heard shouting." Buffybot said as she came into the room and spotted Buffy, "Say, you look like me. We're pretty."

"Oh shite." Spike swore as he saw the bot walking down the stairs.

Almost everyone stared at the two Buffy's in the same room and Xander said "Oh! I know this one. You're both Buffy."

"Or one of them could be an evil twin from an alternate universe." Willow added.

"It's a robot." Buffy told her friends and family, "Couldn't you tell? It acts just like the one Warren made."

"Oh, so Faith just had sex with a robot that looked like Faith." Anya summarized the situation nicely.

Buffy glared at Faith, "Why the hell would you do that?"

"I can explain." replied Faith.

Everyone waited for the explanation which Faith was thinking up.

"We're waiting." Buffy said impatiently.

"Spike did it." Faith blurted out, "Blame him. I had nothing to do with it."

Spike put on a shocked face, "Me? How dare you. I've never had sex with it. Go on Buffybot, tell them."

Buffybot pouted and rubbed his chest through his shirt, "It's true. Our love is unrequited. Something I hope will be fixed in short order."

"He's the one who commissioned the bot." Faith whined.

"You're the one who's using it though." Spike scoffed at Faith, "I just thought it would be a good idea to get a decoy Buffy to confuse the enemy and just in case the real one needed to fake her own death."

"And the fact that she's deeply attracted to you has no relevance?" Buffy asked.

"He's so ruggedly handsome." Buffybot said with a cheeky grin.

"It patrols for vampires too." Spike added.

Buffy blinked, "It whats?"

"Patrols for vampires." Faith said slowly and loudly, like she was hard of hearing, "Just like the brought one."

Buffy frowned, looking at the Bot and asked "Isn't that my dress?"

"What's mine is mine." the Bot said with it's usual perpetual grin.

Buffy sighed, "Okay. So Faith, what the hell possessed you to sleep with.. that thing that looks just like me?"

Faith grumbled then spat out, "It's the chip, okay? It's the fricken chip. It's really your fault when you think about it."

Buffy looked at her confused, "This is the most disgusting, despicable thing you've ever done. Never in my wildest dreams would you do something like this. You can't blame this on the chip."

"But I can blame it!" Faith yelled back angrily, "I can't.. I can't perform properly, alright!"

Buffy frowned, "Huh?"

"You've ruined .. Because of you, I can't even touch myself without it going off. Whenever I give anyone an orgasm, I get smashed in the head with a fucking lightning bolt. That's including myself. I can't even fricken' masturbate."

Spike hemmed, "I just want to point out that I've never had this problem. I can get girls where they're going if you catch my drift."

"You're serious?" Buffy asked, "But I thought you and Spike were.."

Faith chuckled and ruffled Spike's hair, "Oh, Spike's nice but he can't give it to me hard like I like it."

Xander laughed out loud, "Oh my god. Spike, you're the not the big bad anymore. You're the big nice."

"Xander, shut up!" Buffy shot back at him then softened her face as she looked at Faith who was utterly ashamed, "So that's why you've been so moody?"

Faith sniffed a little and shrugged.

"Oh god." Buffy said, horrified, "I didn't know the chip worked like that. That's horrible."

Faith sniggered sadly, "I deserve it. That's the funny thing. I deserve this."

Buffy held her across the shoulders in an attempt to be comforting, "Faith. No one planned this. I don't think anyone wants this for you either."

Buffybot moved behind Faith and hugged her from behind, "It'll be okay, Faith, you'll see. We could go upstairs into my bedroom and I'm sure I'll be able to make you happy again."

Buffy gagged, "Look, you slightly shorter version of me, that's not going to happen."

"Yeah, you have to use the spare bed." Dawn joked.

Buffy frowned at her sister, "Dawn, could you perhaps go to your bedroom while we discuss this?"

"Why?" Dawn asked, "I'll have you know that I'm very adult for my age."

A strange feeling hit Buffy and she stumbled back, bewildered by it.

"Buffy, what's wrong?" Dawn asked with genuine concern, "You don't look too well."

"I just got a wicked case of déjà vu." Buffy told everyone, "If something bad happens right now, I just want to say I told you so."

The door flew burst open, knocking Spike and Faith over with the sheer force of it. It clipped Xander too and everyone dove for cover.

"Spike!" The Buffybot called and took the door off him to check how hurt he was.

"My DOOR!" Buffy yelled and readied to attack the blonde standing in the doorway.

Glory looked Buffy up and down and said "You must be the Slayer."

Buffy looked Glory up and down and replied "People don't normally dress up to get their butt whipped by me but I appreciate the effort."

As Buffy moved forward, she got taken down with a right hook that came out of nowhere.

"Yup. You're the Slayer." Glory said with a smile as he moved in and stood over Buffy, looking down at her like she was a bug, "Now where's my key?"

Dawn screamed and Tara and Anya stood in front of her as Glory's minions flooded into the room, some of them trampling over a dazed Faith.

Xander was quickly beat down by the minions and Willow brought her hand with the goa'uld weapon in it.

The shockwave from the palm device blew some of the minions not at the outside wall but through it too. The only effect it had on Glory was to muss her hair.

"Hey. You've got super powers. Good for you." Glory said to Willow and batted her to the side.

Behind Glory, Murk was lurking with a now very brightly glowing crystal.

"That one, your omnipotence!" Murk called triumphantly, "The one with long mud colored fur. That is the one we seek."

By now Spike and Faith were back up, both looking exceedingly pissed off.

"RARR!" Spike roared and smacked a fist into Glory's head which distracted her while Faith kicked her in the gut.

Grabbing Spike's hand first, she focused and crushed his bigger but weaker fist under her might. As he crumpled to the ground in pain, she smacked him in the face.

"Hey bitch!" Faith yelled at Glory, "You want to try that on a-hurk!"

Faith stopped in astonishment and looked down to find that Glory had put her hand through her gut. Although Faith couldn't see it, Glory's hand had come out the other side too.

Glory smiled at her then pulled her arm back out and Faith fell to the ground in a slump.

"No!" Buffy screamed and got off the floor and punched at Glory, missing.

Glory walloped her with a backhand and Buffy flew against the sofa and fell down to the floor.

Unable to fight it anymore, the darkness overtook her as she laid there, staring into Faith's cold eyes from across the room.

OXOXOX

Continued in next chapter.


	3. House of Cards

OXOXOX

Buffy found it was confusing at first, being dead.

That was until she saw the light and she knew exactly what was going on.

"I'm not ready." Buffy pleaded with the light, "Still so much to do."

"Just hold still." Willow's voice told her, "You'll feel better soon."

Buffy squinted her eyes as she became aware of an incredibly brutal pain where her skull was fractured heavily.

"Oh god." Buffy sobbed, "Faith."

"Still here. Can't get rid of me that easily." Faith told her and not sounding very happy about it.

Buffy opened her eyes and saw Faith still on the ground where she had fallen. There was a pool of blood where she had bled out and she was barely conscious but she was still alive.

"She needs a hospital." Buffy said as she got up woozily.

"Hold on." Willow told her as she got up with her, "I'm almost finished."

Buffy tried to look and understand what Willow was doing to her but when she turned her head, Willow turned it back for her.

"What is - what's going on?" Buffy asked, noticing that obviously the fighting had gone on even after she had been knocked out. The whole front of the house looked like it might collapse at any moment considering how so much of the walls had been knocked out.

Xander and Tara were outside on the grass. Xander apparently had been thrown out there by the grass stains that covered his back. Either that or dragged.

Everyone looked tired and dazed, except the robot. Some of the plastic flesh of it's face had been torn off and shiny metal showed underneath. Beyond that, it still seemed okay as it cradled Spike's head in it's lap.

As Buffy stared at it more, she found out that it wasn't moving. The look on it's face was frozen that way, like a realistic mannequin. It must have run out of power or shorted out.

"There." Willow said, "How's your head."

Buffy touched the top of her head where Glory hit her and it felt a little numb but otherwise it was okay. She also found that she was thinking a bit more clearly too.

"Better." Buffy told Willow as she looked at the goa'uld device in her hands, "Uh, Willow. What is that and where did you get it?"

Willow held up the offending piece of technology and said "It's a Goa'uld healing device. If it wasn't for this, you would have still have brain damage right now. You still might. Maybe you should sit down for a while."

"No. I'm fine." Buffy told her, still confused, "So we won?"

"They took Dawn." Willow told Buffy, "Whatever they were."

"They took Dawn?" Buffy yelled, "Why?"

"I don't know." Willow told her.

"Spike." Buffy called to him, "Who was that?"

"I don't know." Spike said, drained from the fight, "They've got to be from out of town. I would've heard of someone like that before now if they weren't."

Giles pulled up in his big red sports car and stared at the damage from the street. Buffy looked over to him but lacked the energy to wave the slightest greeting. Harmony trailed behind Giles, in just as much shock over the damage as he was.

"My lord." said Giles as he came into the house, wood dust falling on him from the ceiling as he did, "What happened. Is everyone okay?"

Faith groaned, "Does it look like we're okay? No. It looked like we got our ass handed to us."

"We're all fine." Anya told Giles, "Except Dawn. She got kidnapped again."

"Dawn? Why Dawn?" Giles asked.

"One of the grotty guys in robes said something about her being a key." Anya told him, "I don't understand why. She is not the right shape to be a key."

Giles blinked at the Buffybot, "Uh.."

"It's a robot." Buffy told him, "A robot version of me. Spike made it. We can talk about it later."

"Oh, okay." Giles said, nodding, "Yes. You're right. So what happened?"

"A blonde ditz came and cleaned our clocks." Buffy told him, "Along with a bunch of these little minions."

To show her point, Buffy kicked one of the dead minions on the ground.

"And I don't know who they are." Spike told Giles, "So don't ask."

Giles frowned in thought then said "Maybe we can ask that one when he wakes up. I think he's still alive."

"I can fix that." Anya told them and slowly hefted up one of the minion's axes, ready to finish it off.

"No wait." Buffy told her, "We need to question it."

Anya looked at Buffy then nodded, "Sorry. Not thinking clearly. I need a lie down."

Buffy nodded in agreement, "I'm right there with you."

Willow moved over to the minion with the goa'uld healing device still in her hands and said "I might be able to wake it up for us."

As the device started to glow, Willow focused and said "Yeah, it's got some pressure building up in it's brain which is keeping it unconscious. If I balance it out, it'll wake right up."

"Excuse me, what is that?" Giles asked Willow.

"Healing doohickey from the airforce." Buffy told him the short version.

"We should tie him up first." Tara told Willow.

From under his jacket, Spike produced some handcuffs and got a few strange looks which he totally ignored.

Faith tugged on the bottom of Giles pants and asked "Could you get me some water? I'm really thirsty all of a sudden."

"I'll get it." Harmony told Giles and she moved to the kitchen to fetch a glass.

"That'll be from blood loss." Spike told her as he focused on handcuffing the hobbit leper, "Okay. They're on, do your thing, Red."

Red took in a breath and focused. A harsh yellow glow came out of the palm device and illuminated the minion's head. After about half a minute, they suddenly woke up and found themselves surrounded by the enemy.

"Heathens! Let me go unless you want to incur my god's wrath."

"Who the hell are you?" Buffy asked him.

"No words shall pass my lips that will bring peril to Glorificus." the minion mumbled glibly.

"Who's Glorificus?" Buffy asked, "Was that the blonde bimbo who just stole my sister?"

"Yes. My god." the minion said with a kind of crazy smile, "I will not betray Glorificus. No matter what heinous act you bestow up me, my faith will sustain me."

"You're saying that fashion victim is your god?" Spike scoffed.

"You mock what you do not understand." the offended minion shot back, "While your god has turned his back on you, mine walks among her followers, guiding us and nurturing us with her wisdom and virtue."

"Why did she kidnap Dawn?" Buffy asked him, "What will she do with her."

"She's the key.. oh, you didn't know that."

Buffy frowned, "What?"

"Hmm?" the minion asked, "Oh, it's nothing really."

"Where does Glorificus live?" Buffy asked him.

"I will tell no you anymore." the minion shot back.

Buffy punched him in the face once, "YES YOU WILL!"

The minion still wasn't talking.

"I could torture him if you want." Faith said conversationally, "I heard about this torture they use in north Korea where they electrocute your nosehairs. It's supposed to be really painful."

The minion looked at Faith scared and Buffy punched him in the face again.

"Please, no more." The minion sobbed pitifully, "Anything you want, just no more."

"That was disappointing." Faith mumbled to herself.

"Where is does Glorificus live?" Willow asked him.

The minion shrugged, "Could be anywhere. I think she'll take the key back to LA but beyond that, I don't know."

As Buffy pulled her fist back, he shrinked back, "I'm telling the truth. I don't know where they would take the key."

"Why do you keep calling my sister the key?" Buffy growled at him, "She's no key. She's just a girl."

"But she is. She's the key that will take the glorious one home, back to her true power. When that happens, you will all die in the fires of hell. Your flesh will burn off your bones under the might of-"

Snap! went the minion's neck as Buffy twisted it's head at an angle it wasn't designed to bend and she pushed it to the ground in anger.

"We need to get Dawn back." Buffy said sternly, "Before mom gets back."

OXOXOX

Glory angrily knocked the goblet of M&M's aside, spilling them across the floor.

"I only want the green ones. I specifically requested only green." she yelled at the minion and he fell back as if her voice had some real physical force behind it.

The minion nodded shakenly, "Yes, your magnificience. I will go now and fetch you fresh green candies."

The Seeker looked up from his books to take note of this then turned back to them.

"Can I eat her mind?" Glory asked the Seeker, "We don't need that. Do we? It's just, I'm getting hungry."

"let's not risk it. Just to be on the safe side." He replied, "Why don't you order some room service?"

"You don't tell me what to do." Glory said angrily then smiled like a lunatic and pointed to her minions, "You tell THEM what to do!"

Glory had been a little crazier than usual since her re-emergence. She was even more tempestuous and even harder to please.

Whipping her head at Dawn she said "It doesn't matter. You'll get yours for what you did you me."

"I didn't do anything." Dawn whimpered.

"Liar!" Glory roared, "Lies! Lies! lies! Only your blood could lock me away. That's why you put it in that disgusting chocolate."

"No. I gave my blood because they needed a virgin."

"Yeah. That's you alright." Glory snorted, "It doesn't matter now anyway. Soon this entire world will be destroyed, along with your chocolate making friends."

Dawn looked at Glory, trying to be strong but just came out looking slightly sullen.

"She doesn't know who you are." the Seeker told Glory with a sigh, "Or even what we are."

"I know you're the one who made Faith sick." Dawn shot back at him.

"Actually, that was all me." Doc said with a malicious grin, "I was so disappointed the magic didn't take."

Dawn wanted to say something mean and hurtful but couldn't think of anything. So she just sat in the chair they tied her to and fumed. It seemed like bad guys went out of their way to tie her to things.

The Seeker came up to her and smiled, "Don't feel bad, key. As a human girl you would've just grown old and sold out your girly body to a cute guy or a at best, a doctor. Then you would've spent the rest of your life taking care of a litter of little human babies and what fun would that be? All that crying and puking baby food up all day long and crying all night long. It's not what you want."

"Doesn't sound so bad right about now." Dawn mumbled.

"Are you sure she's the key?" Glory asked the Seeker, "Sure, she's all perky but she still looks so human."

"That's because she is." he replied, "While humanity are weak, they have been favored with more concessions than they'd ever have the intelligence to understand. Obviously a failed attempt by someone to help balance out their massive limitations."

Glory smiled, "Yeah. Massive is right."

The Seeker hemmed, reminding Dawn slightly of Giles, "Glorificus, it's not that I don't enjoy your company but this will require some alone time with the key."

"Really?" Glory asked, prodding Dawn in the arm as if to test how squishy she is.

"Yes really. I will require several hours of intense spell forging. I'm afraid I can't abide an audience while I work. It shatters my concentration."

Glory frowned, "Okay. But if you pull something shifty, I've got your number."

Glory and her minions moved out of the room and the Seeker told Doc, "This includes you."

Doc dejectedly left the room too.

Mumbling under his breath, the seeker said "First thing I do once I've completed this is kill that-"

Glory asked as she opened the doors back open for a second, "Were you going to say something, sweetie?"

"Uh. Just planning my self congratulatory party." The seeker explained.

"Yeah. I like those too." Glory replied, then completely shut the doors, leaving the Seeker and the Key alone.

"Hey, that Glorificus." Dawn said conversationally, "Is she like totally nuts?"

"Looks like." the Seeker replied.

"Why are you working for her then?" Dawn asked.

The Seeker gave her a small smile, "As soon as I've got what I want from you I'm going to leave her to rot here."

"You want this key thing, don't you? But I don't have it." Dawn said desperately, "You've got to believe me."

"Sorry. You do. You just didn't know it." he replied.

"What is it?" Dawn asked him with a worried look, "Is it like some sort of demon possession?"

The Seeker laughed, finding the question cute, "No. YOU are the key. Someone gave you a human body and put you inside it. They also altered your memories too."

The Seeker smiled at Dawn as her she started to get the idea and then he continued, "They made you the Slayer's sister and changed everyone's memories around you to make it look as if you've been there all the time."

"You're saying that Buffy isn't really my sister?"

"Sorry to tell you this but you don't have any family. You're just a ball of energy which someone put in the form of a little girl."

Dawn frowned, "So what are you going to do with me? Take this key out of me? Could you do it without killing me?"

The Seeker considered this, "Yes. I believe I could. But I want your soul. A soul that can wield the power of the key. I've already got keys but you, oh, you are so unique."

Dawn began crying and the Seeker frowned and said "Don't be like that. What awaits us is more exquisite than any breeding your future might have held. Your very soul will be used to separate the boundaries between dimensions. You and I we'll invade other dimensions and feed off them, grow strong off their resources then absorb more and more worlds. With each new dimension, we will gain power and momentum. In time, even the heavens will bow under our might."

"You mean I, not we. I'll be dead."

The Seeker smiled, "No, you'll live through it all and feel it all. From here to the end of eternity. I'm guessing that will be a long time."

That was the first time in Dawn's life that she had began to seriously consider suicide. Anything would be better than that.

OXOXOX

Los Angeles.

All four members of Angel investigations came outside to meet the Scoobys as they parked outside the Hyperion hotel. Half were in Gile's red muscle car and the other half were in Buffy's smaller yellow sports car.

Buffy had stopped by the hospital where Xander had ordered a blood infusion for Faith. If they didn't, she wouldn't be any help to them in the near future.

Buffy was surprised that Faith was so willing to fight Glory again after she almost got killed by her. Faith told her not to make a big deal about it but it was a big deal to Buffy, knowing that Faith really wanted to save her sister. It was either that or she had something against super strong blonde girls.

Everyone walked into the foyer and some of them crashed on the furniture. All of them were tired as the ride from Sunnydale didn't leave much time to recuperate.

Buffy let them rest, knowing that they'll need it.

"Could I borrow a pint of red stuff?" Spike asked Angel, not having the energy to make it a confrontation and neither of them really cared for that right now.

Angel nodded and walked over to get some pigs blood from the fridge.

"First off, did you find anything out about Glorificus?" Buffy asked Angel and his team.

By their silence and Wesley's ashamed look, it was a no.

"Great." Buffy huffed, "I think it's time we busted some demon heads because an incredibly strong demon like her with her own gang of minions isn't something that no one notices."

"I know where to start." Angel said as he pulled his duster on, "But you'll have to come with me for this part."

"Lead the way."

OXOXOX

Caritas.

Buffy looked around the room in dismay.

There were demons.

There were demons singing.

And then there were the lawyers.

"Angel face." the Host greeted congenially, if slightly forced, "And you brought a little friend with you. Hey there, honey bunches. Can I get you a free drink? By the look of it, you need one. Must have something to do with the company you're keeping."

Buffy raised an eyebrow at Angel,

"You beat a karaoke loving demon for info? That's kinda sad."

"He doesn't beat me." Lorne told her, "My info is free for the asking."

"He has a sanctuary spell cast over this place." Angel added, "So even if I wanted to, I couldn't. But I don't. Lorne's really a nice guy."

"Oh okay. I was just thrown by the horns and how you called me honey bunches." Buffy told Lorne.

Lorne smiled at her, "Now have you decided on a song?"

Buffy blinked at him, "A song?"

Lorne nodded, "To sing. Angel didn't explain how this works?"

"I don't have time for karaoke." Buffy told Lorne, "My sister just got kidnapped by some freak calling herself Glorificus. Now do you know about them or not?"

Lorne's eyes widen and he directed her into the nearest empty booth.

"Ssh, don't say that out loud." Lorne hushed her.

Buffy looked at him oddly, "Why. I don't think she'll hear me."

"You never know. She's got minions everywhere. Not just the little toadies that flock around her either."

"So you know about her?" Buffy asked him.

Lorne nodded and scanned around the room to check out if anyone was looking their way. There were a few.

"Can you help us find her, maybe?" Buffy asked impatiently.

Lorne looked at her like she was insane, "Why would want to find her? She's bad news, kid."

"She's kidnapped my sister thinking she's some key to something." Buffy told him, "I've got to get her back before she does something to her."

Lorne looked at Buffy blankly for a second, "Okay, this is sounding familiar. Oh that's right. A week back there was demon who came in. A real bruiser. He sang and I got the weirdest reading I've had for a while. It's reminding me of your situation. I think you and him should have a talk. You might find it enlightening. Normally I wouldn't give out privileged information but since my life is on the line…"

"Your life is on the line?" Angel asked as Lorne wrote something down on a napkin.

Lorne nodded, "If the world goes kablooey, I go kablooey with it. So, here's there address. You didn't get this from me."

Buffy took the napkin and read the address.

"Thank you." Buffy said uncertainly and moved to leave.

Angel nodded his thanks and Lorne gestured a "You're welcome but I don't like this" back at him.

"Hey, Angel." Lorne called after him as they started walking away.

Angel turned but didn't say anything.

"You're going to need a lot more muscle than just your girlfriend there." Lorne told him, "I don't know where you're going to get it but you need it."

Angel thought about it as they walked up the stairs to leave.

"I'll drive you back to the Hyperion." Angel told Buffy, "By the sounds of it, you'll need to repair before we face her together."

"I can't."

"You need some rest."

"I can't sleep!" Buffy yelled at him, "Not when some evil demon girl has Dawn. After this I'll go into a fricken coma if it'll make you happy but until it's over, I'm going to help."

Angel sighed, knowing he wasn't going to win this argument tonight.

So he read the napkin instead.

OXOXOX

They found their way to a dark, dingy corridor that was suffering from a bad case of creeping rot and peeled paint.

Angel and Buffy walked quietly down the staircase into the corridor and walked along it as they pulled out weapons. Angel took out a sword while Buffy took out a trusty stake.

They stood up to the apartment door and Angel stopped Buffy, who gave him a curious look.

He quietly opened the unlocked door and they were assaulted by a smell reminiscent of an abattoir. The scene inside left their imaginations concocting all sorts of scenarios. Red blood stains were smeared over the walls and there were pools of it on the floor. In the stains, hands and claw prints could be made out.

As they stealthily entered the room, they heard the distinct sound of meat and bone being cleaved.

Moving as one, Buffy and Angel crept through the apartment until they came to the bathroom.

Tell looked back at them with bloody rubber gloves on and a butcher knife in hand.

"Tell." said Buffy in surprise.

"Buffy." said Tell, also in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" Buffy asked him.

Tell picked up a demon's head which he had just cleaved off and asked "Don't the corpses make it obvious?"

"I told you to leave town." Buffy told him angrily.

"In case you hadn't noticed, Los Angeles IS a different town."

Buffy growled angrily, "Great! This is just GREAT! You killed our only source of information on Glorificus."

"Glorificus?" Tell asked, "Didn't she get bumped off?"

"No!" Buffy yelled at him, "She's still alive and she's taken Dawn."

"Dawn?" Tell asked, "But why?"

"Something about her being a key." Buffy shrugged.

Tell blinked at her, "Dawn.. Dawn is the key? And Glory has her? We've got to stop her."

"You know what this business with the key?" Angel asked him.

"It's bad. You have no idea how bad." Tell told them, "There's no time to explain, in fact, I shouldn't explain. I'm only going to tell you this, if you get Dawn back, don't tell anyone else she's the key. Don't research what the key is. Don't ask anyone about it. Just keep this to yourself. Some things you don't want to know. But first, we have to stop her."

"Whoa. Hold on." Buffy told him, "You're not coming with us. For all we know you're working for her."

"Why the hell would I work for that lunatic?" Tell asked her.

"Because you're evil."

Tell squinted at her, "You really believe that? Just because you weren't strong enough to do what needed to be done."

"What are you two talking about?" Angel asked.

"He killed Tara's father." Buffy told Angel.

"He was evil." Tell told Angel straight after, "I don't care if he was human. I kill evil. That's what I do and you're going to need my help to kill Glory. Not even you can be that stupid."

"Just watch me." Buffy said, accepting the challenge.

"Do you even know what Glory is?" asked Tell.

"A big bad demon?" Buffy asked him.

"No, she's a god. You might've heard about Zeus and Hera and all those pantheon guys in Greek and Roman mythology. Guess what, they're not myths. I've even met some of them. That's what Glory is. She's a god from some hell you've never even heard of."

"You can't expect me to believe that." Buffy asked him.

"Just ask Willow about it. She'll clarify for you, being all wiccan she'll know all about gods." Tell told her, "Seeing as how they summon on some god's power for every second spell they cast."

"My day just gets better and better." Buffy mumbled then looked at Tell, "Thanks for the warning but if you want to help, you'll stay out of this."

"Dawn was my friend too. I want to help."

"She's not just my friend, Tell. She's my sister." Buffy yelled at him, "Stay out of this."

Seeing as how they had no more business to discuss, Angel and Buffy started walking out.

"Wait." Tell called out to them, "I know where Glory is."

This got their attention and they turned around to hear what he had to say.

OXOXOX

When Buffy and Angel got back to the Hyperion, it was packed full of soldiers.

After the initial surprise, she recognized their uniform as that of star gate control.

"Buffy." Giles called to her over the slight commotion, "What did you find out?"

"We know where she is." Buffy replied as the room quieted down for her, "And we know what she is. She's a god."

"I'm not really impressed by hearing that anymore." Jack O'neil told her, "Maybe I'm just jaded."

"That's a given." Buffy replied with a smirk, "But she's a little different from the Goa'uld. Glory is part of a race that used to rule over parts of humanity in the past, quite possibly rivals to the Goa'uld."

"We know about this." Piper told Buffy.

"Oh. Hi. I didn't see you there." Buffy said with a smile, "So you're going to help too?"

The three sisters smiled and Phoebe said "Of course! There's an innocent in need of saving."

"That's great." Buffy replied, "Does anyone have any clues on how to tackle her?"

"We're formulating a plan." Wesley told the two returning heroes, "It seems Glorificus has a weaknesses we can exploit."

Buffy blinked, "How did you find that out?"

"She's in the book of shadows." Paige explained.

Buffy looked surprised then chuckled, "Wow. That book just has everyone."

Paige nodded, "We even looked Angelus up in it."

Angel looked shocked, "Now you've got to understand that-"

"We know." Piper stopped him, "Cursed with a soul. We all know."

Angel sighed with relief, "Good."

"So what's the plan?" Buffy asked.

"We seal off the area and deal with the followers." Jack told her the soldier's part.

"While we fight Glory and slow her down enough so the wicked wiccans can do their mojo on her." Faith told her their part in it.

Buffy blinked, "Uh. Fight Glory? That didn't work so well the first time. We hardly scratched her."

"Buffy's right." Willow said with a frown, "If we fight her again, some of us are going to die."

"We could lure her into some claymores." one of the SGC soldiers suggested, "I've yet to see anything survive that."

"Did anyone bring any claymores?" Jack asked and when no one said yes he told them, "No because we didn't equip any for urban warfare."

"What about rockets?" Xander asked and Jack shook his head.

"How about we pick off her followers then when Glorificus comes out, we concentrate our fire on her." one soldier asked.

Xander shook his head, "Wouldn't work. She seems to be a lead-by-example type. If she finds you sniping her goons, she'll come out personally to lead the retaliation. Gunfire should hurt most of the minions but I don't see it doing much to the big girl in charge."

"We could always double up." suggested Faith.

Wesley looked at her oddly, "Double up?"

Faith nodded, "Before, I possessed Xander and we were like two people but in one body. Something about that turbo charged my slayer powers. We were wickedly strong. I reckon I could beat down this Glory chicky if we did that again."

Xander groaned, "Faith, that half killed me. If I did it again, I think it would kill the other half."

"Why don't we use that same spell but on someone else?" Cordelia asked, "Someone not as wimpy as Xander? Like maybe Gunn or Angel or that guy with the golden emblem on his forehead. "

Giles hemmed, "That wouldn't be a good idea."

"We're not really sure how Xander pulled it off." Willow explained some more, "It's not a good idea in any case. It was quite dark magic. He's lucky he came away from it without any permanent damage. His body wasn't designed to wield Slayer powers."

"Mine is." said Buffy, "Faith could share my body so we can fight Glory."

Faith blinked at her, "Really? That's big of you."

Willow shook her head, "Buffy, that's not a good idea. After Xander did that spell, Tara and I researched the spell he used. It turns out that the duration of the spell depends on compatibility between the two subjects. It's like an organ transplant. And I can say now, you're not compatible with Faith. Even if you made the spell work, you two would be too confused to be any use and it wouldn't last that long."

"But I am compatible?" Xander asked Willow, "With Faith?"

"Yup." Tara said with a nod.

"We're compatible?" Faith asked, giving Xander a silly grin and wrapping her arms around his shoulder, "Aww, Xandie. Who's my little snuggle button?"

"Hey. That's my boyfriend." Anya smacked Faith's hand, making her flinch back, "Keep your self off him."

"Yeah. Weirdo." Xander told Faith.

Faith just laughed, "I guess that makes you a weirdo too."

"Okay. So Faith isn't compatible." Buffy acknowledged this, "How about you, Will?"

Willow blinked, "Me? Uh, no. Definitely not. We actually analyzed everyone's essence, as a little project and we found two possible transplantees for you, Buffy. Giles who is actually a very close match and Harmony, strangely enough."

"Me?" Harmony asked, "But I'm like a vampire. She's a vampire slayer. We're complete opposites."

"We don't get that either." Tara told her, "It's not because of the chocolate either. It turns out that your demon didn't change you as much as the usual vampire. It's the same with Spike too."

"We think it might be a trait lots of master vampires have in common." Willow theorized, "Also Spike, in case you were wondering, you're most compatible with Joyce."

Spike seemed to enjoy this, "We always did get along."

"What about me?" Anya asked.

"You're a bit unique among us." Willow told her, "But don't be sad. So am I."

"Back to the plan guys." Buffy prompted them, "So what are you saying, I should let Harmony into my head?"

Willow and Tara looked at each other then both shook their heads.

"That wouldn't be good." Tara told her.

Willow nodded, "I'm quite certain your Slayer powers would kill Harmony and possibly take you along for the ride. Giles is the only choice you have."

Buffy raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure about this? About Giles?"

Tara nodded, "If we're going to try this, he's the one you want. You both have a bond with fighting the supernatural. Just focus on that and it should align you two together."

"How much of an advantage are we talking about here?" Jack asked.

"Last time we did this, Xander kicked a vampires head off." Anya said enthusiastically.

Xander sighed, "Actually, the head didn't come off. Its neck just bent a lot."

"But really. He was amazing." Anya said proudly, hugging Xander.

Xander blushed, not really used to this sort of adoration in public. Normally Anya reserved it for when they were naked.

"If me and Buffy both do it, we should be able to take out Glory." Faith told the air force officer, "Or at least take her down a notch and keep her from killing all you guys."

"I like the part where we don't die." Jack told them, "Lets try this."

"Also, these Zatnicatels." Willow told them, pulling out the zat the SGC gave her, "They don't do squat against vampires. It's a good chance it won't do anything against demons too, seeing as they don't have a remotely human anatomy or even a natural anatomy with iron based blood."

"That's fine." Samantha told Willow, "We didn't bring any zats."

"Have we got a copy of that spell here?" Buffy asked Willow, "The possession spell?"

She nodded, "That's not a problem."

Buffy sighed, "Okay then. Let's move out. The sooner we hit them, the better."

OXOXOX

"Hey, does this make my ass look big?" Glory asked a passing minion as she tried pulled at the hems of a red cocktail dress she was trying on.

"Ah, but, ah." he stammered for a second then caught himself, "Surely you know that our meager senses can only fail to quantify the shapeliness and firmness of your divine form."

Glory pinned him with a pissed off look, "No really. Does this make my ass look big? I want to look my best for when I go back to my home dimension and rain down a world of pain like no one's business."

You think it's bad when your girlfriend asks you that? Think about how that minion feels.

Fortunately for him, he was saved by another minion who was peeking through the blinds to the streets bellow.

"I do not wish to alert the most Glorious one." the minion called for her attention, "But I have noticed that the surrounding area is being sealed off by what appears to my eyes to be human soldiers."

Glory's eyebrows did that sexy thing they do when she's mad and she stormed over to window and pulled the blinds open.

She stood there for a second, frozen in place then turned to Doc who really looked like he didn't want to be there.

"You know people in this town, don't you?" Glory asked him, "Call them here to fight in my name."

A shadow flittered past the window behind Glory and she paused mid-rant. She sniffed the air as if she smelt something.

"I could've sworn I just saw something." said Glory, "Oh well. Time to go to war."

OXOXOX

"You better not slack off this time." Spike growled at Angel as they walked along the road, flanked by SG personnel on both sides.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Angel asked Spike.

"Don't remember how you hid in the armored van at the last scuffle we had?" Spike asked him, "You always did have a selective memory."

"Have your testosterone bath later." Cordelia told them both, "We've found trouble."

"I know." Spike told Cordelia as a sizable amount of demons walked down the street towards them, "That's why I'm telling Angel not to chicken out."

Angel sighed as the SG teams lined themselves up along the street and everyone prepared for the fight.

Everything was quiet for a second until Spike asked the soldiers, "Are you waiting for an order? Bloody Fire already."

"They're not in effective range." the nearest soldier told him as another soldier provided an update via radio.

"You do know that guns will only piss them off or slow them down, right?" Spike asked, "So we should get that over with early on."

"I don't like this." Gunn said, "There's too many of them. This is stupid. These soldier boys don't even have proper weapons."

One of the SGC took the time to look at Gunn oddly.

"We've handled worse odds." Wesley told her, "I can't quite remember when but I'm sure we have."

"There were more demons during that riot in Sunnydale." Spike told him.

Wesley nodded, "Arr yes. I'm particularly fond about how I wasn't on the front lines that time."

"I liked that part too." Cordelia agreed, "Uh guys. What are we going to do?"

"OPEN FIRE!" one of the soldiers commanded and that's what happened.

OXOXOX

"Buffy. Just relax." Willow told her best friend when she reacted to the gunfire in the distance, "You've got to be open for this to work."

Buffy nodded, clearly agitated, "I'm getting a little wigged at the idea of Giles inside me."

"How do you think I feel?" Harmony asked her.

Buffy sighed, closed her eyes and calmed herself, slowly opening her mind up.

"I'm ready." Buffy said in an almost hypnotic state.

"Me too." said Faith, her voice holding none of the usual barb.

Giles and Xander muttered their spells under their breaths, feeling their own minds opening up until they became aware of the unseen world around them.

It wasn't an entirely natural state for a human being to be in and for good but barely known reasons.

Both men focused upon their chosen Slayer and searched for the small white space between their ears.

As they ventured towards it, their souls started to merge.

Xander's mind glided smoothly into Faith's. The link between them strengthening from their last union, which had strengthened from the time they had sex and from the time Faith was strangling Xander. Their minds flicked subliminally through their most intense moments together and they both weathered them in with one goal in mind, to become one.

Faith's eyes flashed open and she took a deep, labored breath as her eyes lost their dark centers and became a shiny metallic gold shields.

"Damn." Faith croaked, quivering as her body tried to fight the invasion into her mind and body, hoping to ride it through.

Holding her hands to the ground, she kept herself upright and tried to focus on just breathing.

Buffy however wasn't having it as easy. Her mind was being assaulted by wave after wave of guilt. Guilt for poisoning her for the cruciamentum. Guilt for leaving her to die at the hands of the Master. Guilt for not having the answers for her when she needed them, particularly recently when Giles had been trying to justify staying on the Hellmouth when he was only dragging Buffy down by having her rely on him.

Buffy fought back with her point of view on all the subjects but it was just making the transition harder.

"Don't fight it." she heard Willow say, "If you fight it, it won't work. Don't fight it, for Dawn."

Buffy heard Dawn's name and bit back her pride.

She let the assaulting images take her over, filling her up, shredding her insides. She fell over backwards and bundled up into a fetal position.

"Oh goddess." Buffy heard Tara say but didn't know what she was talking about, "We've got to stop it."

"No." Buffy whimpered, "It's almost over."

"It's killing you." Willow told her, "You've got to stop."

Then something in Buffy broke and she suddenly flopped out flat like she had just fallen from a height and stayed still.

"Buffy." Willow whispered, fearing for the worst.

Buffy's eyes slowly opened and they were the covered in the same metallic gold as Faith's were.

"We did it." Buffy told her and slowly rose to her feet, "We are one."

"Are you okay in there, Giles?" Harmony asked hesitantly.

A wave of pure lust raced through Buffy but was quickly suppressed. In it's place, Buffy felt a friendly, warm feeling towards Harmony. It wasn't truly romantic love but it was loving. Compassion for her, patience for her and the need to care for her and the need to comfort her. Buffy thought that his relationship with Harmony was just skin deep but it wasn't. She now knew that Harmony worshipped Giles with all the devotion a lovesick schoolgirl and for his part, he treated her gently and with dignity.

It wasn't the most healthy relationship but Giles couldn't bring himself to cut her off and throw her out into the cold.

Plus, she had the most firmest –

"Whoa!" Buffy said, shaking her head clear, "Okay, let's not think about that. Think about Dawn. Think about the fight."

"Buffy. Are you okay?" Willow asked.

Buffy nodded, trying not to look at Harmony again, "We're okay. A bit rocky at first but I think I'm getting the hang of this old thing."

On the other side of the room, Faith seemed to be in some sort of pain, "Damn Giles. Never realized how hot your girl was. You've gotta give me go at that."

Buffy's eyes rolled into the back of head as she tried to fight an internal struggle, "Bad thoughts. Very bad thoughts."

"Just want to bite into that ass." Faith muttered as she started getting hot under the collar.

Buffy grabbed Faith by said collar and forcibly dragged her out of the room, into the street, "Focus Faith, uh, Xander. Whoever."

"Fander." Faith chuckled and looked Buffy up and down with appreciation, "Damn. How did you get so hot when you're so tiny? You're like a little toy."

"Faith!" Buffy slapped her, "Remember Dawn? Focus."

Faith smiled, "Yeah yeah, we're gonna fight Glory, the chick with hot legs. I got your back. I'm just planning an after-battle party is all."

Buffy ignored Faith and ran off into the street, towards the gunfire.

They found the SG personnel laying down some extremely heavy gunfire into the advancing swarm of vampires and leprous hobbits which was slowing them down a lot but beyond that, it's hard to say what permanent damage they were dealing.

Walking into the fray like there was nothing to worry about, Buffy calmly kicked a vampires legs out from under it and broke it's neck with her hands before it hit the ground.

Faith came up besides her and picked a vampire off the ground by it's head and threw it back into the crowd, causing the front line to get knocked back more than the combined gunfire of two SG teams.

"Slayers!" One of the vampires hissed.

"That's right." Faith said with a happy grin, "Enough for everyone."

Angel and Spike moved into position behind them, each with a sword while the SG teams moved to the far left and right of the street to help repel any monsters trying to move in from their flanks.

While Faith pounded into the demons with impunity and bone crushing strength, Buffy walked over to the side of the road, her demeanor calm as ever.

"What are you doing?" Cordelia yelled at her.

"I saw this in a movie once." Buffy told her and pulled a parking sign pole straight out of the concrete.

Blocking out the gunfire, blocking out the chaos and the screams, Buffy focused and the world stood still for her. Holding the pole behind her back for what appeared to her as a second, she whipped it out and smashed the concrete covered base of it against a vampire.

The concrete exploded off it as a powder and the vampire exploded into dust from the devastating shock to his system.

Spinning it around the other way, she sliced off a vampires head with the thin metal sign, straight through the hood of the brown robe he was wearing too.

"That's her!" Spike hollered to the soldiers as he spotted an angry Glory storming their way, "That's the trollop."

Seeing as how the two new Slayers were royally kicking their ass, the demons separated to let Glory take care of the mess for them.

"Where's my sister?" Buffy asked, her voice cold as liquid nitrogen.

Glory tilted her head at Faith and asked "Didn't I stick my hand through you? How come you're still moving around?"

"Hey cock-bite, we asked you a question." Faith shot back at Glory, eager to get the conversation part of the fight out of the way.

Glory smirked, "I'd say you're too late to save little Dawnie. Right now the Seeker is bleeding her dry for the little spell he's working up for me."

"And he would be doing this at your favorite hotel?" Buffy asked.

Glory nodded with a grin.

Buffy and Faith turned to each other and nodded.

"Let's beat her up now." Buffy agreed with herself, which was a new experience for her.

Glory laughed until Faith came over to her and floored her with a punch.

From the ground, Glory stared up at Faith in total confusion. Faith didn't give her any time to think though as she straddled her chest and started pummeling her face into the concrete.

To counter this, Glory pulled her hands up into a boxers guard and then pushed Faith back several feet into the air and off her. Before Glory could get up Buffy hit her in the head with the metal pole and sent her sprawling back across the ground as she tried to get away from the ceaseless attack.

From the ground, Glory scissored her legs around Buffy's and pulled her to the ground. Then she kipped up, ready to step on Buffy like a bug.

Buffy recovered quicker than she normally would and kipped up too, bringing the fight back to Glory. She'd lost the pole in the fall so she just brought her hands to bear instead.

Glory swung tight, powerful hooks which Buffy dodged with incredible ease as if she could see them before Glory even knew she was throwing them. Buffy was hitting back at Glory in the face, the jaw and the neck. While Buffy seemed to lack the same raw power as Faith in this new state of being, Buffy was still hurting Glory by the sheer amount of hits she was landing.

OXOXOX

The Seeker was kneeling in front of an altar, summoning dark and unseen powers with a slow, low chant.

Sweat dripped off him in rivulets as he pushed the limits of his ability to cast the spell. His eyes were closed and held in both hands in front of him was a sacrificial athame intended for Dawn.

Dawn was on the altar, strapped down, screaming hoarsely for help and trying desperately to worm her way out of her bind.

Suddenly, the doors opened to the room.

The Seeker sighed as he turned around to look at the trespasser in the eye, "I said I didn't want to be disturbed."

When he saw Tell charging at him, the Seeker just held out a hand and Tell stopped as he was lifted slightly off the ground to levitate in mid air.

"You-you can do it." Dawn called out to Tell, "You can save me."

"What do we have here?" the Seeker asked then smiled, "I know what you are."

"And I know what you are too." Tell replied as he struggled to speak while his throat had an invisible hand covering it, "What you seek is my birthright."

"Is that why you're here? Your birthright?" the Seeker scoffed.

"For her." said Tell, "Let her go and I won't kill you."

"Oh, so you're one of those that entertain delusions of redemption. You think that you can ever save enough innocents to make up for what you've done."

"I don't care about that." Tell told him, "Now back off."

"Or you'll what?" The Seeker asked.

"Or I'll do this." Tell grunted as he bared his teeth and his blood visibly boiled bubbles which threatened to burst through his skin as they sped through his veins. The bubbles made their way into his brain and some sort of switch was turned on as his eyes became two dark red orbs.

The Seeker smirked, "I've seen that before. Not impressed."

Then a small throwing knife found its way into the Seekers left eye and he fell over backwards.

While the Seekers concentration was shattered, Tell fell back to the ground and lunged forward with an ancient dark brown dagger of cold iron.

Enraged, the Seeker held up his hand and let loose an indescribably powerful shockwave which sent Tell flying across the room, took out the wall before he hit it and blew out the windows.

After his ears stopped ringing, the Seeker pulled the knife out of his eye and it healed almost instantly.

"You're going to pay for that." he said as he tossed the dagger to the side.

OXOXOX

On the streets, most of the demon onlookers had decided that it was becoming a decidedly unsafe place to be. Many of them had fallen by continual torment by the SGC firearms and the few who had gotten close enough were dealt with by Angel investigations or in a singular case by one of the SG personnel cutting into them with a field knife. They'd lost the numbers and now it looked like they had lost the power advantage too.

On the good guy's side, the SG teams were staring in awe at action they'd only seen the likes of in bad action movies.

Buffy battered Glory all over her body and without mercy. Glory got the upper hand as she swept Buffy's feet out from under her. Glory stomped on the ground where Buffy fell but Buffy had rolled away in the last possible moment. Not letting Buffy get away, Glory kicked Buffy hard in the gut and she skidded across the road and rolled into a car.

Glory grinned, thinking over a suitable torture for Buffy when she didn't make a move to get back up.

"Forget about me?" Faith asked as she grabbed Glory from behind, by the ankle and pulled up.

Glory growled and then screamed as Faith threw her into a car like a hammer. Faith didn't let go though and she followed this up by throwing Glory over her back so that she hit the ground, head last.

Rolling over, Glory kicked Faith in the head but she still didn't let go. Glory kicked her again and stunned her even more. Then Glory pulled her leg in, pulling Faith towards her and she grabbed Faith by the temples.

"You all break so easily." Glory said with glee as she curled her fingers into Faith's head and trails of light started flaring out where they pierced skin.

"Hey!" Buffy yelled and Glory turned too late to see the blonde Slayer throwing the street pole like a javelin.

Letting go of Faith at the last second, Glory was thrown against the wall by the attack and stared in astonishment as she found the metal street pole had actually gone straight through her side. The pole had corrugated and splintered with the incredible force of the throw but it was enough to pin her to the wall.

"Don't .. believe.. this." Glory said in between pants, "You're just.. mortals."

"We're the wave of the future." Buffy said coolly, making Faith a little uncertain if that was a joke or not.

While Glory was pinned, the charmed ones came out from behind the ranks of soldiers and prepared their spell.

"Mistress of rage, widow of mind." the charmed ones intoned.

"No. This is my body. MINE!" Glory growled when she figured out they were trying to do and she pulled the broken pipe out of the wall and out of herself.

"No dark shall hide you, no light shall find."

Ignoring her wounds, she hefted a car straight off the curb at them.

Piper brought her arms up to freeze it in place but was beaten to it by the two Slayers who moved in front of them and caught the car themselves.

The skidded back as they struggled to stop the car from crushing the witches and the fact that when you compare the weight of a car to the weight of Buffy and Faith, they didn't have physics on their side.

However, they stopped its momentum and then they threw it back at Glory.

Glory wasn't expecting this and she only just had the time to brace for impact.

Steel and alloy wrapped around and pinned her back towards the wall while the Slayers held the car there, trapping her in place.

Trying to keep the momentum of the spell going, the witches kept going themselves.

"Only the cold wind and a prison unkind."

"With our words and your flesh we bind."

The Slayers had finally had enough with keeping Glory pinned so they stood back and the car was quickly pushed aside.

The witches each threw a potion which landed at Glory's feet and exploded in a puff of smoke.

Glory cried out in pain and suddenly it was Ben crying out in pain as he held his side which was now bleeding profusely.

"Um, uh, medic?" one of the soldiers called, "Hey Dufrain! Help that guy in the skirt out."

"I've got this." Leo told them and moved forward to help out Ben.

OXOXOX

"You're courting your own death being here." the Seeker yelled at he scanned the disheveled room for Tell. Several more of the walls had been taken out by him.

"Then why are you so scared?" Tell's voice asked and the Seeker threw his hands in that direction and pushed kitchen set through the wall it was installed into.

Taking in a some labored breaths, the Seeker kept scanning the room.

"You're getting tired." Tell said as he hid behind a fallen fridge, "You've spent too much energy preparing the sacrifice. There's no way you can deal with me and still use the key."

"He's right." Dawn told him, "You should run for it before he gets you. I know he will."

Tell spun out from behind the fridge and threw some stake knives he had picked up from the kitchen, now that he had run out of throwing knifes.

The Seeker held up a hand and had a gust of wind blow them off course.

Then he fell over in pain as the Butcher knife Tell threw had landed in his shin.

After wrenching it out of his leg, the Seeker half-sobbed "I am not a foot soldier! I don't have to take this from a lower level urchin!"

Tell chuckled, "I agree about the foot soldier part, wuss. Why don't you go home and cry to momma?"

"Damn you!" the normally feared demon yelled back as he launched another, stronger telekinetic blast which took out the outside wall behind Tell and pushed a coffee table out into the thin air outside.

"Your aim is getting worse too." Tell said with a smirk.

The Seeker walked back as Tell walked forwards slowly, not understanding Tell at all. He was bleeding all over from his wounds and must have been in severe pain but he wasn't showing it.

What could create such a terrible will?

"Aha." the Seeker said, now smiling as he picked up a knife, "I know what will stop you."

He turned around and stabbed Dawn in the chest.

Now laughing as Dawn convulsed in pain, the Seeker turned around and said "Now you've got no reason to fight me. She's dead. Now get out of here before I really get mad."

Snarling, Tell dashed forwards and spear-tackled the Seeker. Instead of knocking him to the ground, Tell pulled back at the last second and hefted him onto his shoulder in a fireman's carry. Then he threw him back onto the ground where there used to be a wall.

The Seeker looked surprised when it found itself impaled on two rusty concrete reinforcement bars. One going through it's heart and another going through it's neck.

It tried to struggle but Tell grabbed the bars and bent them around each other like a piece of licorice.

With weak hands, the Seeker tried to unbend them but he was too far gone and Tell stood back to watch him die.

"Tell." Dawn whispered and Tell turned around to find her still barely alive.

"Don't talk." Tell said, quickly moving to her side, pulling her up from the quickly forming pool of her own blood.

"You saved me." Dawn said with an ever weakening smile as she touched his face with a bloodied hand.

Tell could tell that the room was becoming powerfully saturated with a dangerously primeval magic. Every instinct he possessed told him to get out of there, to leave the room or to jump out a window.

But one look back at Dawn on the floor stopped him. Her eyes longing for help, for life, for someone. His heart told him she didn't deserve to die alone.

"Dawn." Tell said softly, "It's all going to be okay."

"It's okay." Dawn replied, "I just didn't want to destroy the world. It's better this way."

She coughed up some blood.

"Don't talk." Tell told her, knowing that the wound she had was fatal.

Ignoring him, she looked into his naked demon eyes and asked "Do you think there was ever a chance between us?"

Tell smiled and nodded for her, "Yeah. I really think so."

Dawn tried to keep it in but she coughed up more blood and she kept coughing. Her body took its final measures to keep her alive and she was caught somewhere between suffocating and bleeding to death.

Tell held her and couldn't stop himself crying, "I'm so sorry."

The more she died, the more the magic in the room picked up and the very air started glowing an electric cyan green.

OXOXOX

Outside, everyone stared up as the top of the hotel Glory was staying at started glowing.

"No!" Buffy cried out, "Dawn!"

Suddenly the penthouse suite exploded with a brilliantly blue supernova which quickly turned to a black cloud which blotted out the stars. Windows shook and shattered and for eight city blocks, car alarms were shaken awake.

After that, everyone just stood there watching, expecting something else to happen but nothing did.

That was when Faith looked over to Buffy who had fallen down on the street and looked dead.

"Buffy." Faith called to her as she moved over and held her up, "Oh good, you're alive... Buffy?"

Faith looked Buffy over for injuries but couldn't find anything life threatening. There didn't seem to be anything physically wrong with her.

"Buffy." Faith said softly, her eyes already turned back to normal since Xander had left her during the explosion, "What's wrong?"

OXOXOX

Much later, Willow and Angel shifted through the remains of the penthouse level, searching for a clue as to what happened and searching for a clue to Dawn's location.

They had an escort of an SG team. Others were searching the other levels.

"Oh no." Willow caught back a cry as she started to pull back a piece of roof tile, "Dawn."

As she turned away and started crying, Angel moved over and cleared away the roof tiles and found Dawn's body underneath.

Wincing, he looked her over and found something unusual and out of place.

Picking it up slowly, he found Tell's favorite weapon, the spiked gauntlet. He remembered it by the blessing he could feel coming of it.

" Willow." Angel said softly, "Tell left this."

Willow turned around and stared at his find.

"He wouldn't leave that." she told him, "Is he still around here?"

"We haven't found anyone else." One of the SG personnel said helpfully.

Willow frowned, "Looks like Tell died too. Good. He must have been the Seeker all along."

OXOXOX

Hours later, the Scoobies are at a nearby airbase, Area 51 to be precise, where they were keeping Buffy for observation.

They could see her through an almost soundproof window where she was hooked up to some light life support.

But right then, people were watching the TV in corner which was showing the government cover-up.

Delta teams uncovered a drug cartel which was funding terrorists for acts on US soil and they moved in with the help of the local PD to pacify the situation. The explosion in the hotel was explained away as a chemical explosion from the narcotics lab.

It wasn't air tight but then deception never was. No one expected too much inquiry into it, not when the details could be classified for national security.

It was a momentary distraction and they soon put their mind back on Buffy.

"What do you think is wrong with her?" Harmony asked Giles.

Giles' face was a continual frowning mask as he answered, "I believe she's still in shock from the spell but I'm not entirely sure."

Faith got up from her chair and spent a moment to ready herself as some dizziness hit her.

"You okay?" Spike asked her.

"I'm okay."

"You don't look okay." Spike told her, "In fact, you look deader than I do."

"I'm fine!" Faith shouted back then calmed herself, "Really. I'm okay."

Then she walked down the hall, past the Scoobies which were camped outside Buffy's room.

She looked at Xander who was just as bad as she did and he had Anya holding onto his arm like a life preserver.

"You should tell Anya." Faith told him, "She deserves to know."

Anya blinked at Faith as she opened the door to Buffy's room and sat down in the chair besides the bed inside her room.

"What should you tell me?" Anya asked Xander.

"I'll tell you later." Xander said tiredly.

"You're having an affair, aren't you? Oh, it's with Faith, isn't it?"

Xander groaned, "No. It's not with Faith."

"I should have seen it earlier. You've been in each others bodies. How can I compete with intimacy like that?"

"I'm not having an affair."

"So you're just dumping me?"

Xander put his face in his hands in defeat, "Anya. Can we talk about this later?"

"If you're gay, it's okay." Anya told him, "You don't have to dump me, we can just experiment with other men. I just don't want to lose you."

Xander looked at her with the smallest hint of a smile, "Anya, some day soon I'm going to ask you to marry me. Don't say anything right now. It's not the right time."

"You want to marry me?" Anya asked, barely believing this, "Me?"

"Can we talk about this later?" Xander asked.

Anya nodded, her mind even more numb that it was before, "Okay. Let's, uh, let's get you some rest."

Xander smiled weakly at her, not really meaning it, "That would be good but I think I'll just sit here a little longer."

"Okay." Anya agreed, "Xander. Can I ask you something. Something different?"

"Sure."

"What's it like being in the same body as Faith?"

Xander shrugged slightly, "It's a bit confusing. She literally wants to screw everything in sight. Or maybe that's just some weird byproduct of the spell."

"What about the evil part?" Anya asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Xander smiled slightly, "She's not really as bad as she thinks she is, which is actually why she's so bad."

OXOXOX

Inside Buffy's hospital room, it was quiet except for Faith's holding back her tears.

"I'm sorry for Dawn, B." Faith said quietly, "You hear that? I'm sorry."

Faith's face scrunched up in pain when Buffy didn't reply.

"Say something." Faith said through clenched teeth.

To her, Buffy was invincible. No could stop Buffy. To see her so dead, it hurt her.

It hurt her more than she thought she could be hurt again.

"Damnit Buffy, say something." Faith cried and the floodgate of tears was opened. She started crying and she couldn't stop.

Outside, Buffy's friends watched this go on but no one really said anything because there was nothing to be said.

In the end, their pain said it all.

OXOXOX

FIN

Eh, well. Whatja think?

I think it's actually the biggest episode I've written yet.


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